Livestock Farmer Focus: Tom Rawson is up to date with winter infrastructure
Cows are in the buildings as they calve, leaving dry cows to graze a large amount of grass on the platform.
Winter infrastructure has been the priority and is now finished; cow tracks and fencing are in the budget for next spring so hopefully this time next year we will still be grazing the main herd by day at least. The herd at Dewsbury are in at night but still grazing by day, high dry matter second cut is complimenting low dry matter grass well.
Weekends are relied upon for a rest between milkings, but this was not to happen recently. Friday night was spent pumping out dirty water from the parlour pit – 23mm of rain in 24 hours plus an interesting drainage system on the farm meant that, as Caitlin was milking, the levels started to rise up and up settling just below the top of her wellies, this led to 50,000 litres being slurry tanked out by 10pm that night.
The next day the calves escaped from some buildings up the road, resulting in seven out of the 32 finding their way into a 50-acre wood. Jersey cross calves are not the easiest thing to find in a wood, but with plenty of help from my neighbours we managed to find six out of the seven. Five days later the last was spotted looking amazingly healthy and has rejoined her mates. Something is telling me a 50-acre wood plus calves could equal a cheap wintering system.
Up at Dewsbury, a lady of the night seems to have adopted the farm track outside my parents house to carry out her business. There appears to be an ever-increasing collection of McDonald’s rappers… she must be offering some sort of meal deal.
