Dennis Bridgeford
Dennis Bridgeford
Dennis Bridgeford farms
50ha (125 acres) at Petley
Farm in Easter Ross, north
of Inverness. The farm
comprises a 480-sow
indoor unit producing 95kg
pigs for one outlet and 85kg
pigs for a local abattoir. A
further 320 sows are run
outdoors. Land not used for
pigs grows spring barley
WE FINALLY managed to finish combining at the end of September. In desperation we cut the final flat acres of barley with the silage mower, to the amusement of my neighbours.
The mower made a reasonable job of cutting the crop, which was then lifted with the combine. It is rather ironic that the end result was of good quality and quantity.
I cannot ever recollect baling in October. Straw is normally big square baled, but at the final push we just couldnt get the required quality, so we finished with round bales.
After the buzz of harvest I always feel a bit flat. This may have something to do with the outgoing grain cheques. With an abundance of wet feed barley in the area, we decided to purchase to the limit of our storage capacity. Only time will tell if this has been a sound investment.
After discussions with our nutritionist, we have dropped wheat in all grower diets because of its high price. If we could get an increase in the pig price a serious improvement in the strength of our business would be possible.
Our machinery hassles grind on relentlessly. The replacement mill has been nothing short of a disaster area, with even the engineer about to admit defeat. For some reason the rotors fail to run smoothly. To the companys credit it is going to replace it.
Is a big change about to happen in the slaughter and manufacturing side of the pig industry with the sale of the Malton group to the Grampian Food Group? We have dealt with Grampian since its expansion from chicken to pig meat. Sometimes we managed to unearth better prices on deals, but it has managed to stand the test of time.
Obviously Unigate has lost interest in pigs. Let it move over and give someone with drive and enthusiasm a go. Lets face it, the industry cannot be any worse off than we have been over the last few years and, more importantly, Grampian use home produced carcasses consistently. *
Decisions, decisions… Steve Morris choice of co-op to join could be swayed by the state of the farm road.