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
IT HAS been difficult to find something positive to say about our dreadful summers weather, before I launch into the negative. But swedes are growing rapidly, following a recent Boron spray.
Forage rape sown after first cut silage also appreciates present conditions and should be ready for lambs grazing in September. The potato irrigator remains firmly parked and were extremely fortunate to farm in one of the driest part of the provence.
I presumed too much last month when I stated that the last of the cattle had finally gone to grass. The wettest summer since the infamous 1985 has seen them return indoors. Second cut silage swards are being zero grazed to feed them.
Even on slatted accommodation they are far from clean. With weight gain well below average, a lot of meal will be fed this winter in order to finish them out of the shed.
A protracted calving period next spring also looks likely as a number of cows have returned to service.
This is the first year that we have not made any conventional hay. Nevertheless, haylage saved from some of our heavy low lying fields, where the water table is currently just below the surface, is excellent.
Under the strict conditions of the Date Based Export Scheme, beef markets are at long last open again. Present prices will dictate that no cattle are exported but it is still a welcome option should market conditions alter.
Like John Best (Arable Farmer Focus, July 19) I, too, was in South Africa recently. Although silverside roasts were retailing there at £4/kg, I cannot share his optimism for the UK beef industry.
On one of those rare occasions where reality exceeds expectations, shearing was completed in one day. Weaning is well underway with only the heaviest, smallest and trial lambs remaining. Fit cull ewes have been marketed and next seasons breeders condition scored. Ewes in condition 2.5 and lower have gone to preferential grazing.
Trial lambs gained an average 7.8kg and 4.9kg in the two, four week periods to June 28 and July 26, respectively. Wormed for the first time on May 30 with moxidectin (Cydectin), faecal egg counting allowed a 57-day interval before the second dose. *