Grass growth still strong says Minette Batters

Whether it’s down to climate change or the earth’s closer proximity to the moon, I’m not sure, but I never remember grass growth continuing so well into December.

Autumn calving is nearly over and I’ve been grateful for the mild weather. We’ve had one casualty, and then one set of twins, keeping the calf-to-cow ratio the same. Since headage payments ceased I’ve been ruthless with our culling policy; a suckler cow without a calf is too costly to keep, which is why I’ve always gone to great lengths to keep all calves alive.

That said it’s easy to spend half a day calving the cow, the next half a day – or usually night – warming the calf up, and drenching it with colustrum, then several more days getting it to suck from its mother. When, you’ve been kicked to oblivion, and the calf dies, it’s hard. Thank goodness sometimes they live and restore your faith.

I’ve made the difficult decision to send our Simmental stock bull on. Rex had more than paid his way; he had been in the top 1% worldwide for beef value, had served a minimum of 30 cows a year for nine years and still looked tremendous, but the odd touch of lameness was creeping in. It always seems so easy to keep a bull a year too long, and of course face a hefty loss if he’s destroyed on farm.

Hope you all have a very Happy Christmas.

Farmer Focus: Minette Batters