RSI forces Clyde Jones to change hands

As some of you may notice in the coming months, I have had to change hands while grass measuring or plonking. This is a result of a repetitive strain injury (RSI). Now, this didn’t come up during a recent Health and Safety lecture, but Static Electrical Phenomena (SEP) did, like you get from trampolines (I had to ask). Now if you’re plonking on a trampoline, without appropriate safety equipment then really you’re asking for trouble.

We have just got a Mule UTV which is a bit safer and cheaper than a quad, so far so good. We just need a set of clubs and we will be up for a round of golf anytime. At least the balls will be easy to find as grass growth has slowed down despite the rain, to 31 with an average cover of 2,050 kg/dm/ha .

In anticipation of this we have some deferred grazing put by. This is a clover-rich spring reseed that has leapt up to a massive 4,400kg/ha DM and got to the point where I couldn’t walk through – let alone measure – left hand or not.

The bulls have been pulled out after 12 weeks of breeding .Confident that all the cows are now in-calf, we have decided to amalgamate the once-a-days and the twice-a-days. I am confident that, should we have a high empty rate, I can find somebody else to blame. The yields did drop off to 20 litres or 1.5kg milk solids recently, which is a good sign – we will feed now to slow the round.

Read more from Clyde and our other Livestock Farmer Focus writers.