Farmer Focus: Spares fill pickup for daily cattle checks

Grazing on the Salisbury Plain, our cattle can be quite far from the farmyard, so being prepared for all eventualities is key when we go out and check round.

The farm pickup is always loaded up with all the essentials, carrying every indispensable tool available known to man – including spares of absolutely everything.

See also: 4 essential checks to improve suckler herd efficiency

About the author

Dan and Catherine Mercer

Dan and Catherine Mercer farm more than 730ha on the edge of the Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, including land rented from the Ministry of Defence. They run 130 native-breed, spring-calving suckler cows on low-input grassland, finish bought-in dairy-beef cattle and grow 263ha of arable and cover crops. 

Read more articles by Dan and Catherine Mercer

From water fittings to fencing materials, to the veterinary box and spare batteries, you will find it all in there.

With what can be a twice daily 10-mile round trip between all the groups of cattle, a journey back to the farm to collect something you may have forgotten doesn’t always go down well.

It has been a welcome relief to have had a decent amount of much-needed rain. The grass and crops have been desperate for a drop and things were beginning to become a bit of a worry, especially with everything here being so tinder-dry.

The grass out on the plain is still very thin in places and, having not cut any silage yet, because of the lack of grass, the rain couldn’t have come at a better time.

With about 30mm, it has helped dampen things down. Fortunately, everything has just started to bolt, which will help bulk up the silage clamp a little.

With the forecast looking warmer and drier, we should be able to crack on and get some grass cut.

The cattle seem to be enjoying the current cooler spell of weather. The recent very hot, dry conditions did mean that we were constantly filling up water bowsers for the grazing cattle, as there is no access to any direct water supply on the plain.

Having routinely semen tested all the bulls, we also made the most of the opportunity, while they were in the crush, to check their overall health and get their feet trimmed.

We then put them out with the cows and heifers. We have now got virtual fencing collars on a small group of heifers, and we are in the process of training them at home before they move out to graze the neolithic hill fort, a site of special scientific interest.

So far, so good. They seem to be getting used to them.