Farmer Focus Livestock: John Bainbridge battles cold conditions

By now Christmas and New Year will be distant memories, hopefully the same can be said about the snow! Unfreezing water pipes and clearing snow have become unwelcome daily chores, as we realise the drawbacks of living in an upland valley.

Due to the high price of sugarbeet we have hardly used any in the last year or two, but in the past I have found it a good feed for early pregnant ewes. Fortunately, this year we found somebody who would sell it at a reasonable price and had 20 tonnes of nuts delivered in early December. This is proving one of our better moves as access for deliveries of any kind is currently difficult to say the least.

The council that once provided an excellent service at clearing snow seem to be taking a seasonal vacation. No doubt they will remember to send us a council tax bill in February.

The cattle are housed and, like the ewes, have big appetites in the cold weather putting us uncomfortably ahead of our feeding schedule. Incidents of pneumonia in young calves have been unusually high and early treatment with antibiotics is made priority.

Normally we aim to have all the fat lambs away by the New Year, yet this time, partly due to the snow, we have about 120 lambs left. Prices are holding up well but with rumours of New Zealand lamb on our doorstep we hope to get them away soon.

Finally, well done to all those fellow farmers who have received their SFP, but spare a quick thought for those of us who haven’t. We shouldn’t have to put up with a system that discriminates between us. Nevertheless, it’s not a perfect world and as someone said, at least we have it to look forward to!

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