FARMERFOCUS
FARMERFOCUS
Andrew Groom
Andrew Groom has managed
Purlieus Farm near Swindon,
Wilts, on contract since
1991. The 138ha (342-acre)
farm, owned by P&A
Crocker, is stocked with
200 dairy cows with
replacements reared on a
separate 26ha (65-acre)
farm. His interests include
whole-crop cereals and
cross-breeding cows using
a Brown Swiss bull
WITH the first fortnight of May warm and dry, its been a lovely change from the wettest winter on record.
Milking cows have settled quickly to grazing. They were turned out for the bank holiday weekend, night and day. I am giving them a 5kg dry matter mix of maize silage, molassed sugar beet and maize distillers, following afternoon milking, to boost fresh calvers intakes, as parlour feeding is limited to 2kg/head a day.
Daily milk production has moved up well and hopefully will continue to stay higher than predicted. April production was 20,000 litres up on this time last year, which I hope will continue into May.
Looking at latest Intervention Board figures, Aprils figures were well down, mainly due, I guess, to foot-and-mouth and people running out of silage.
Estimates of lost production for the year are already running at 650m litres due to F&M. Lets hope out of this crisis and sorry state comes some pressure on processors to provide more than the laughable 1.5-2.0p/litre as encouragement for a future industry.
I hope, by this time of year, to have maize planted, but thats me being ever the optimist. With a dry start to the month, surface ground conditions have been good. But it is still a different story beneath the surface.
The water table remains high, which has hampered ploughing and working down. Hopefully, sub-soiling will speed drying, allowing us to drill quickly while we have the dry spell and limit risk of running late at the end of the season.
Keeping busy with calving and other tasks during the coming months, will provide the added benefit of not having to listen to too much general election spin. I have become sick, over the last few months, of the rubbish and misinterpretation generated by government and its bodies.
I can only say those who lobby on our behalf should use this time to ban, as was highlighted in the 1967 F&M report, meat from countries where the disease is endemic, such as Bolivia, Brazil, Argentina, Korea, Botswana and South Africa, to name a few. *
Giles Henry
Giles Henry rents 105ha
(260 acres) on a 10-year
lease and 114ha (280
acres) of heather moorland
near Selkirk in the Scottish
Borders which is in organic
conversion. Cropping is
mainly grass with 14ha (36
acres) of spring barley. The
farm is stocked with 450
breeding ewes, 85 hoggs
and 50 Luing cows with
followers and finishers
A NEIGHBOUR says the weather always picks up when lambing starts at Oakwood Mill – and it did. May 1 was warm and sunny, weather which has continued since. Although sharp frosts on some nights are still hampering grass growth, the change in 10 days has been amazing.
Lambing is going well with plenty of lambs and ewes milking well. Bringing lambing forward two weeks has increased lambing percentage. Lambs are strong, but I shudder to think what they would have been like if we had had a decent spring. They are big enough as it is and a good spring would have probably resulted in more lambing problems.
Cows are still calving, with eight cows left to calve this month and four two-year-old heifers next month. There could be a couple of later calving cows, as I put the bull with those PDd not in calf for three weeks in November.
Once we had our form D lifted, I was able to bring 18 cows and calves down from the hill and these are enjoying a better bite of grass in a field. We will bring the rest of them down once the 21-day movement restriction is passed,.
We managed to sow one field of barley last week and it is nearly through. The second field I had planned to sow is holding cows I have been wintering and many of these have now calved. I hope these cows will be able to be moved home later in the month, then I will decide whether it too late to sow barley. The weather will probably be the deciding factor.
We put last years bullock calves out on May 6, into a good sward of grass with plenty of clover. The idea is to finish these off grass for the organic market in October. Heifer calves will remain inside until there is a bite for them in sheep fields. *
The Metcalfs
Bill and Jonathan Metcalf
rent 89ha (220 acres) of
grassland, plus moorland
grazing, near Barnard Castle,
and own a further unit 12
miles away, both are
situated in the Less Favoured
Area of Teesdale. The farms
are stocked with 120
sucklers, including 20
pedigree Blonde dAquitaines,
and 1200 ewes with
200 replacements
MUCH time has been spent recently trying to contact the various bodies controlling movement licences. After much frustration, we have finally managed to send bulls for slaughter along with a few geld ewes.
However, hoggs and Swaledale ewes and lambs that should be out on the moor are stuck at the farm, as are store cattle which we are unable to sell. We have had difficulty easing the situation because we would have had to cross common land to reach our other land. However, we did manage to move Mule hoggs to Greta Bridge where the ground is green rather than brown.
Some animals have gone on the Welfare Disposal Scheme. It was an unpleasant, distressing day with mixed feelings of guilt and sadness, as if we had let down stock which was going before its time.
We have a poor field adjacent to the moor where there have been significant lambing problems. But thankfully, we received appropriate paperwork allowing us to move them to the main farm.
However, the day we were due to move them, sheep turned out a couple of miles further up the moor appeared over the wall, so we decided not to allow them to mix with the rest of our stock. Instead, they may join others on the moor and take their chance.
Just prior to the outbreak we bought an aged Blonde bull which we had admired for several years and intended to use on pedigree cows. Weighing more than 1t, he had superb shape and had produced many pedigree and show animals.
Events prevented his movement which we thought was perhaps fortunate because he was coming from a relatively clear area to a rather more infected one. However, we have just heard he has been slaughtered as being on a farm contiguant to a cluster of new cases. Our loss, however, is nothing compared with that of his owner.
There is much speculation about how many cases were not really foot-and-mouth, but in our area we also hear of classical symptoms on farms, culled as neighbouring, that have never found their way onto infected lists. We still dont know what to believe. *
Farmer
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
A WEEK-and-a-half of glorious weather has transformed the farm. We can now actually do things – which is just as well as there is rather a lot to be done.
At the beginning of winter, with all three lagoons empty, I was confident we had enough muck storage capacity to last until spring. However, three lagoons are now full to overflowing. One former silage pit is full of solid muck being composted and the other has become continuous with the third lagoon, containing 0.6m (2ft) of dirty water.
My calculation we had enough silage to last until mid-April was also challenged. We had 21 big bales left at turnout, which will be required to feed our growing army of young calves.
Being foot-and-mouth bound, calves are being reared organically with a view to sale as stores at some point after weaning, along with everybody elses. This means milk for a minimum of 12 weeks and expensive organic concentrates. We will probably turn them out onto first cut aftermaths, but will have to be careful with stocking rates as Soil Association rules limit us to two cows/ha (0.8/acre).
Because of late turnout – due as much to appalling weather as to F&M, grazing is getting away from cows so we are planning an early first cut on May 11.
In theory, we could split the cut, leaving slower fields for a week or two. This is what we did last year, but ended up getting caught out by the weather. So this year, if the sun stays shining, we will do the lot and bank on good regrowths for second cut. But first we have to empty the silage pit of slurry.
Our summer project is potatoes. This is our first step towards market gardening – with the ultimate aim of selling more of what we grow locally through the shop.
Shardy, who came to do the planting, was not overjoyed to discover my wife had ordered 13 different varieties to go on 0.8ha (two acres). With admiral self-restraint – and the merest hint of a sardonic smile – he suggested that we just take them one at a time. *
Andrew Groom