Farmer Focus: Fert spend of £700/t weighs on mind as market eases

The dry weather has given us a chance to get into the fields earlier than normal. The wintering sheep are all off and slurry is on most of the silage ground.

I have resisted the urge to spread any fertiliser yet. The £700-plus/t I’ve paid for it is taking a bit of swallowing as I watch markets coming back substantially, and I want to make sure I maximise its use.

Good weather has allowed us to make progress working through the capital part of our first Mid Tier scheme.

See also: Falling fertiliser markets drop as global gas prices fall

About the author

Tom Stable

Tom Stable and family, Ulverston, Cumbria, milk 300 Holsteins twice a day, producing milk for Arla and ice cream for their Cumbrian Cow brand. The 215ha operation, of which half is rented, grows grass, maize, and winter wheat. Cows average 10,800 litres.

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Fred Wilson has done a beautiful job laying more than 2,000m of hedges so far, and we have just started replacing the fences this week.

The boundaries on the farm have been neglected a bit since I’ve come home, as I’ve been focusing instead on cows and concrete. It’s nice to be getting through the work now.

We have also been working towards taking down the old cubicle shed. The project will mean grazing about 180 cows day and night – roughly double the normal number.

The water pressure on the 24ha (60-acre) block of land we usually graze the low yielders on has been poor for years, and when it’s hot, it doesn’t keep up with the 90 cows we usually have up there.

The land is 500m from the main farm, so we’ve run a new water pipe straight from the bore hole, which should solve it.

We also ran an electric fence lead-out cable in the trench to allow us to use a mains energiser as opposed to the solar unit we had before, which was OK for cattle but struggled with wintering sheep.

Now we await the council to authorise a road closure so we can get across our lane. Unsurprisingly, this is taking longer than expected.

I believe you should play to your strengths in farming, but grazing cattle is not one of mine. We will have to see how it goes.

We managed to get away as a family for a holiday in Florida in February, leaving a great team in charge.

Staff make or break a farm and we are very grateful for the effort they put in, especially sharing responsibility while we are away. So, thank you to Ian, Dan, Tom, Sam, Lisa… and even Joe.