Farmer focus, livestock: Julian Ellis

Human error is one of those things in life that we are all capable of, including the Royal Navy with their recent submarine blunder. But this month we have had our own share.

The cows managed to get half way to the village because I presumed they would happily cross the lane while I washed out the parlour; and we also had a load of cattle feed ordered, which somebody in the haulage department managed to forget.

Rarely does human error work in our favour, however – except for this month when I had a phone call to say the semen I used on a bunch of heifers in February was actually sexed semen and not ordinary as I had ordered and paid for.

Having never used sexed semen before and unsure of the conception rate, time will tell whether I will be pleased with the error or I will have more beef calves from the Angus bull that ran with them afterwards.

The cows have enjoyed the fine spell of weather, but we shall be bringing them in soon to increase their intake of silage as our grass quality seems to be low. It will be nice this year to bring them in when we want and not have to wait for the building to be finished as we did last year. We are also hoping the sealant we have applied to the inside of the slurry pit will be successful. Cuts seem to be high on the government’s agenda at the moment, and we may also have to make changes ourselves as we have just had 12 months’ notice on one of the blocks of land we rent. Push come to shove, I could take our oxy-acetylene kit and help cut up the Ark Royal.