Farmer Focus: We need a catchy slogan to promote beef

Now then, to quote Bruce Springsteen, this last month has been like ‘working at the car wash, where all it ever does is rain’.

On the arable side we have been totally ‘square wheeled’, with acres and acres of drilling to even start on.

What we have drilled we can’t travel on to spray, so plan B might have to come into action.

I have tested the spring barley feed heap for germination in the hope that the weather gets better and we can drill everything in the spring.

See also: Beef and lamb retail sales show increase through summer

The knock-on effect is that we will produce less home-grown feed and there will be a national bun fight this autumn for straw.

The maize crop is still out in the field, but we have reserves of whole crop wheat to feed. The worst-case scenario is I will get the combine out and we will go down the grain maize route and crimp it.

The cattle yard is full, due to the store prices becoming more reflective of the prime trade, which won’t suit the store cattle sellers and suckler farms.

But, coupled with cheaper commodities, it gives the finisher more of a chance to make a margin.

Here at Osgodby Grange we are trying to be proactive in regard to CO2 and methane emissions.

We are undertaking a CO2 audit to see if we have improved on the one we had two years ago.

I’m fairly confident we have. The addition of yeast and a feed additive into the minerals will help reduce methane emissions by 10%.

We have tended to place cattle into the feedlot younger, making them more efficient.

We are also finishing them quicker, which means fewer days on farm. This in turn gives us a bigger throughput, using fewer resources.

None of it is rocket science but it all adds up to less greenhouse gas being produced.

I am totally willing to reduce our carbon footprint, as long as air miles, transport and leisure activities are taken into consideration too.

Britain’s largest supermarket has a new advert, using child peer pressure to stop parents buying meat.

The media is trying to demonise meat and make eating meat socially unacceptable – isn’t it about time we stood up for ourselves?

We need a slogan – 10 words or fewer and the winner gets a tomahawk steak.

Doug Dear is a Farmer Focus writer from Yorkshire. Read his biography.