Archive Article: 2000/08/04
Steve Brown
Steve Brown farms 200ha
(500 acres) in Co Durham, in
partnership with his parents.
The familys 125-cow herd is
run at Hopper House; with a
200-ewe flock and
replacements on grass at a
separate unit and the
remaining land as arable crops
MOST of the last month has been spent trying to make hay. Almost three weeks after cutting 14ha (35 acres), we were still trying to get it baled up in mid July.
The hay crop is fed to sheep and dairy youngstock at the other farm, with occasional bales going to horsey-people. The latter option looks a non-starter this year as it is below par for seaside donkeys never mind potential Grand National winners.
Rain and little sunshine have not been the best combination for killing grass, hence we reverted to plan B, continual spreading out and rowing up of swaths when conditions allowed, in an attempt to beat it to death. This debacle has delayed second cut silage, which is on the agenda immediately after hay-time. But at this rate we will be lucky to squeeze it in before the barley is ready to harvest. On the plus side grazing is continuing well, with a steady stream of regrowth giving sufficient in front of cows, but not too much for them to waste.
The waste attributable to an ever-increasing dock problem has been addressed by spraying. Docks have of course been particularly bad in fields next to the road. Unfortunately, this is where most of the fields are, which confirmed our belief that it was time to tackle the problem.
In the parlour, a change in circulation cleaner seemed to cause a build-up of organic milk deposits in the plate at the bottom of the receiving jar, and on further investigation this seemed to be liberally spread throughout the milking plant. Test results had not actually suffered, but a strip down and manual clean of all joints and pipe work was carried out, and we hope to have shut the stable door before the horse has bolted, for once.
Perhaps last months low fat and protein figures, 3.65% and 3.18%, respectively, were not because of seasonal affects alone, but because so much got stuck on the pipeline, on route to the tank. *
A change in circulation cleaner meant a strip down of the parlour to remove deposits, says Steve Brown.