Farmer Focus: Fencing equipment is top of the Christmas wishlist

Over the past fortnight I have been fortunate enough to attend both the Sheep Breeders Round Table in Nottingham and the Nuffield annual conference in Belfast.

Both were interesting, thought-provoking and tiring, but I returned home with a sharpened focus, determined to find ways in which to push our business on while re-arranging my work-life balance.

In theory, this time of year should be fairly relaxed in the lead up to Christmas, but for the past few years there seems to be an increasing number of meetings which need to be attended.

I have always been a strong believer in the saying “you never learn anything staying at home”, but over the past month, days off farm have been mounting up and the early part of December doesn’t look much better.

See also: Winter preparation progress

As it’s nearly New Year’s resolution time, I can think about what I’m going to do and top of the list has to be to manage time better.

Now that winter is fully upon us, we are settled into our winter routine, more ewes are returning home from grazing every week and winter feed consumption is rising as a result.

We made more silage than ever this year and the decision to invest in some shiny grass-handling kit has meant the quality of our round bale silage has risen nicely.

It’s still expensive feed to make, however, as we don’t own our own baler and have no intention of buying one.

We may have a look at building a silage pit next year, but like many things this will depend on finances, which at this stage aren’t exactly looking rosy.

One item of expenditure that I really hope to keep in the budget is fencing kit that will let us split fields up so that we can utilise grass better.

This project is at the top of the list for next year and we are looking forward to seeing just how much grass we can grow with a change of mindset.

Read more from the livestock farmer focus writers 

John Scott farms 200 suckler cows, 4,500 breeding ewes as well as some crops across 2,226ha. He also has two contract farming operations and generates energy from a small scale wind turbine and biomass boiler.