Farmer Focus: New clamp filled with grass and wholecrop
© Angus Findlay Since the beginning of June, it has been pretty manic here. Even being one member of staff down, we have achieved a great deal.
A 1,000t silage clamp was constructed, and the yard now looks very different.
Our wholecrop mix and two cuts of grass went into the new clamp, and it will be interesting to see the analysis in due course.
See also: Advice for beef winter rations as feed shortages loom large
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Previously, we used AgBags, along with hay and big bale silage.
But making hay is always a chancy business, and we want to reduce our plastic usage because of expense and disposal costs.
Harvest has been better than anticipated; fortunately, the weather has been on our side.
We started cereals on 25 July, finishing on 18 August, and the beans were combined on 9 September – record early dates for us.
UK grain yields have varied hugely this season; ours, especially spring barley, have been considerably better than last year.
So far, the Laureate barley has all gone for malting, although at the higher end of the nitrogen spectrum.
Screenings have been surprisingly low, at 11%.
There is still a large quantity of oats, both winter and spring, to shift, hopefully for milling.
Wheat yields are nothing to write home about due to poor establishment last autumn, yet our experience in Fife is the opposite.
Livestock have tended to look after themselves these past three months, with most now grazing the hills rather than fields, as the fields are bare.
Both sheep and cattle look very well considering the quality of rough grazing – sunshine is a wonderful product and doesn’t cost a penny.
Lambs have been weaned, albeit a little later than normal, and we have had more than 15% of our Cheviot wedder lambs averaging £126 a head fat.
The remainder of the wedder lambs will be sold store in due course.
In the meantime, we are concentrating on getting the autumn-sown crops into the ground with the new shared Sky drill.
We are aiming to plant these crops with minimum soil disturbance, and two fields have already been drilled into standing green manure crops.
A major combine breakdown did not help stress levels, but Sherriffs, our local dealer, came to the rescue.
Our thanks must go to our team and helpers for getting us successfully through the season.