Archive Article: 2001/01/19
Miles Saunders
Miles Saunders farms with
his parents on an organic,
mixed 370ha (915 acre)
farm in Oxon. Main
enterprises are 230 milking
cows and followers, 270
Mule ewes, 50 beef cross
stores and 50 beef cross
calves. Winter wheat, barley,
oats and beans are grown
for the organic market
THE year 2000 will not be remembered by me for the best of reasons. Starting with a fall off my horse, causing a touch of concussion, followed by the theft of my Land Rover and trailer, with subsequent recovery, the spring was capped by my wife leaving for pastures new.
However, summer was reasonable and the hay was made in good weather. Plenty of silage was also made, although quality could have been better. Grain harvest was below average but the organic price held up well.
Lambs are doing well now, averaging £50 each. Cows are improving their milk yield to average 25 litres/day and they seem to be holding in calf quite well at 61% to first service.
The scraper tractor, a Ford 4000, was due for a major service just before Christmas with all four wheel bearings in need of replacement. Total effort was made to make sure that the tractor was ready for the Christmas period. The problem was that putting anti-freeze in all vehicles had not been completed before the freezing weather started. Fortunately all was well and we have now caught up.
The cold weather was welcome, but with it coming between Christmas and New Year we were unable use all of the days of frost.
Over the past year there have been 35 cull cows, which represents 16% of the herd. Nine cows were culled because of fertility problems and another nine for mastitis and high cell counts. Two cows went because of lameness and four others were casualties. One cow died of bloat although there were some close shaves with five other cows. Five others were culled for yield, lying in the passage and potential arthritis in two older cows.
The coming year should be exciting with the plan to increase the dairy to 300 cows. There are many hurdles to jump and the aim is to be in a position for efficient milk production for many years, hopefully producing organic milk. The prices are stable for a while which should enable the capital costs to be recovered fairly quickly. *
Having banished last years 2000 blues, Miles Saunders is looking forward to the challenge of expanding his organic dairy herd to 300 cows.