FARMERFOCUS
FARMERFOCUS
Alan Montgomery
Alan Montgomery runs
a 300ha (750-acre) mixed
farm near Downpatrick, Co
Down, Northern Ireland.
As well as cereals and
potatoes, the farm supports
a 130-cow suckler herd,
950 breeding ewes and
1000 store lambs
A 60-DAY herd test revealed a single TB reactor; we simply cannot break free from this disease for any length of time.
The Veterinary Service has pledged additional valuers and slaughtering facilities in a bid to remove reactor animals faster. Obviously a lesson learned from foot-and-mouth and a step in the right direction.
Only time will tell whether these measures have the desired effect.
Suckler cows have been vaccinated with Rotavec and are close to calving as lambing gathers momentum. Contrary to the modern trend, breeding ewe numbers are increasing on this farm. But, despite the buoyant lamb prices of 2001, ewe numbers are 9% down in the province.
Acquiring quota from the national reserve last year was complicated. I required the services of an accountant, solicitor, the Inland Revenue and Contributions Agency. Small wonder the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development has 10% of ewe premium quota units in its possession when committed sheep producers have to go to these lengths. This year I simply took route one, paid £3 a unit and bought 100.
Building work on a silo delayed our second cut silage by two weeks last year. When high quality first cut silage ran out recently, I was apprehensive about moving into the new pit. In the past, we have lost a number of heavily pregnant ewes when silage has changed.
Fortunately, the transition went smoothly. Although the silage had more stem than I would have liked, it had fermented well resulting in good intakes from both ewes and beef cattle.
Sixty beef bullocks, smelling a field of fresh young grass adjacent to their yard, managed to work a gate open. With no-one on hand, they had an afternoon running around the wet field as freshly released animals always do. If you did not know the difference, you would swear the field had been rotovated.
After a years enforced absence, student visits are back on. Degree students have been studying root and forage crops and early and mid-season lambing systems.
Not so long ago, there were over 20 in these groups, but this time we only had 11: A sign of the agricultural times. *