Archive Article: 2001/02/02
Mike Allwood
Mike Allwood is owner-
occupier of 82ha (200-
acres) near Nantwich,
Cheshire. The 175-cow dairy
herd block calves during
May and June. Besides
converting to organic
production, he is also
planning to produce
unpasteurised cheese
TODAY signals the return of the monsoon season after a few dry, frosty days which have enabled us to ease pressure on the slurry lagoon.
In theory we have a complete winters capacity. However, despite starting in September with three large lagoons empty and storing much of the solid manure in a silage pit turned midden, we were full to bursting by late December.
This unsatisfactory situation has prompted some musings along the line of… if everything had a roof over it we wouldnt have a problem. Fag packet calculations have failed to support the economic viability of this solution; nevertheless further thinking will be done before next winter.
We are full steam ahead producing as much milk as possible before the end of the quota year, since leasing out the surplus does not look sensible. Sadly, telling a herd of May to July calvers in January that it is now alright to produce more milk does not have much effect. But at least we are producing more by not dropping the cake as in previous years. Also, dry cows may start off in the right condition for once instead of like hat-racks.
We were a few cows short of a herd – not a farming metaphor for being thick – so I cast around for some organic cows to buy. The only ones I could find were Dairy Shorthorn so we now have some attractive red and white ladies wandering around. They seem to have settled in well and are producing as much milk as their black and white contemporaries. It will be interesting to see how they perform in our high forage system; they look well suited.
After a busy Christmas with the cheese and shop, we are about to start our business planning for the year. Unlike the farm – where we can budget returns pretty accurately – knowing how much cheese we will sell is complete guess-work. All we can do is set targets then work out how we can achieve them. At least we start the New Year with many more customers than we had in January 2000. I hope I will be able to report the same in 12 months time. *
Predicting returns from cheese sales is even more difficult than forecasting returns from farming, according to Mike Allwood.