FARMERFOCUS
FARMERFOCUS
Bill and Jonathan Metcalf
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
AFTER seeing a picture in farmers weekly of a producer who relied on his computer, I began thinking about what I rely on. Apart from good health and weather, which I do not have much control over, it would probably be my wife, dog and four-wheel bike.
We have been putting ewes to tups, with an extra 70 sheep being put to the Swaledale. This has been more difficult than usual, as a ram that has produced some of our best Swales is jointly owned and not available because of difficulties over movement restrictions.
However, we have used three ram lambs sired by him and our old Pen-y-ghent tup has about 100 ewes. Careful checking of his grand-daughters – which are some of our best shearlings – was necessary to ensure these were drawn to other tups.
We have been trawling through DEFRAs National Scrapie Plan, which it is trying to steamroller through. It seems obsessed with narrowing the gene pool to only include the most scrapie resistant ARR gene in every sheep in the country.
Presumably, then all DEFRA would need to do would be to find an excuse to slaughter sheep with this ARR gene, allowing it to cull the lot. The only other reason we can see for breeding everything resistant to scrapie/BSE is if the government has it in mind to dispose of specified risk material by feeding it to resistant sheep.
As members of the Swaledale Sheep Breeders Association, our Swaledales have been scrapie-genotyped for years. All sheep with the valine gene cannot be sold for breeding.
The National Scrapie Information group has classified the AHQ/AHQ genotype – not containing the valine gene – as being in the second most resistant group to scrapie, yet DEFRA appears to wish to eliminate this genotype.
The aims of the National Scrapie Plan seem only based on experiments where BSE is deliberately introduced by unnatural methods into sheep in order to determine which is possibly the most resistant genotype. God help us.
After DEFRAs previous performance, we would rather stick with a scrapie eradication plan based on long-term research rather than trust in their fashionable theories into TSEs. *
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
OVER the past few years I have had some part-time employment away from the farm to supplement our income. When I have had these jobs, it has been nice to have a regular monthly pay cheque, just like a dairy farmer.
However, during our organic conversion period, I seem to have been busier at home and the necessary time required to take employment away from the farm has been harder to find.
In the past 7-8 months, I have done some serious thinking on how I could supplement our farm income, even going as far as to apply for a couple of full-time posts.
But I have come to the conclusion that I enjoy what I do and would miss it if I had full-time employment off-farm. With contractors or part-time staff doing the work, I am certain I would not have the same sense of satisfaction as when doing everything myself.
With all these thoughts in mind I read an advert in the local Press in June, for a diversification opportunity. It was from Scotlands leading egg producer, Glenrath Farms, seeking farmers to produce free-range and organic eggs on contract. I contacted them and went to see organic egg production on one of their own farms.
John Campbell, the managing director of Glenrath Farms, gave me an insight into what was required and it appeared that it would fit into my business well, providing good monthly income.
I visited a couple of other producers and began to put together a business plan. At this time, the Scot-tish Executive launched its Farm Business Development Scheme and my project fitted its criteria.
I filled out an application – together with supplementary information – and submitted it in late August for assessment. As with all grant schemes, it took until late Oct to learn the outcome, but we are delighted to have received a 50% grant towards our organic free-range egg enterprise.
I have ordered an APS mobile egg-laying unit for 2000 birds, with delivery taking place mid-January and hens hopefully being on the ground by early February. *
Clyde Jones
Clyde Jones manages two
200-cow herds on a
dairy/arable farm near
Dorchester in Dorset. One
herd is spring calving and
the other, late autumn
calving. Both are managed
using New Zealand farming
techniques over 140ha
(350 acres) of chalkland.
SOME time ago, I saw a wildlife programme about the African buffalo on the Serengeti, with David Attenborough describing how they decide where their next grazing ground is.
Apparently when they are sitting down chewing their collective cuds, one buffalo will stand and face in a certain direction, followed by another suggesting another direction and so on. Eventually the way they go is a democratic average of all of these suggestions.
While the Taliban may learn a lot from this, my cows are governed by the grass wedge. Every week I measure grass and tabulate the tallest grass on the farm. This way we know where to graze next and can sort our rotations accordingly.
Cows have no say in this and can show their opinions in their grazing efficiencies.
Oddly this year, we have opened the silage clamp at Rainbarrow for 60 dry cows. These are spring calvers which are below body condition score three. They are receiving self-feed silage and 4kg of meal.
In contrast, autumn calvers are receiving 3kg/head/day of compound and grass, while the silage clamp remains closed. They are about three-quarters of the way through calving and producing Friesian calves, having given us some Jersey and Ayrshire cross heifers which are out enjoying the autumn sunshine on milk, grass and coarse mix.
I have had a good week. Tuesday was spent at the British Grassland Societys excellent Pasture to Profit conference, where a brilliant selection of speakers motivated and inspired us. On Wednesday I spent the day with our local Summit discussion group.
Some people are using the dry time over winter well and putting in new parlours. Many are long swing-over parlours in the order of 20:40 or more, capable of milking 150-200 cows/hour.
We milk about 80-100 cows/hour depending on stage of lactation. But I use the time in the pit well. Armed with a calculator, I can work out yield, milk solids and even milk solids/hour.
The only problem is the time spent milking is proportional to the likelihood of some cow dumping in your coffee. Time for a change for us also. *
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 also produces
unpasteurised cheese
on the farm
COWS finally came in altogether on Nov 13. Unusually, this was because we had run out of grass, not due to poor ground conditions. Fields are in pretty good shape, although soil is tacky and will need the winter to recover from poaching.
Fortunately, I am not faced with having to winter sheep this year, although my inclinations after last spring are to keep them as far away as possible.
Silage looks good and I was expecting great things from it, so it is sobering to discover we are producing the same amount of milk/cow from it as we were this time last year – eight litres.
In fact, it is the same as we always produce from silage unless we have made some terrible butyric rubbish. We could cut concentrate and challenge cows to produce more from silage, but experience suggests we will lose one litre of milk/kg of compound saved, which makes poor economic sense.
We have been hyperactive with the cheese this autumn. In addition to our nine regular farmers markets, we are doing several shows. In October, we went to a trade show in London called Organex 2001, displaying our organic cheeses.
This was not very busy, but we made some useful contacts. Next was Henrietta Greens Food Lovers Fair at Covent Garden – three days of furious selling to the public. Finally, in December, as well as Christmas markets in Manchester, we are spending five days at the BBC Good Food Show.
It is difficult to decide how much cheese to take to these events. We tend to err on the high side, reasoning if we havent got it we cant sell it. Our aim is to put our product in front of as many people as possible.
If we can break even or make a small profit we feel we have done a good job. This is not as easy as it might seem as the costs of stand space, refrigerated storage, staff, accommodation and transport make shows expensive to attend – typically well in excess of £1000.
Finally, I would like to wish all FW readers a happy Christmas and prosperous New Year. *