George Holmes
FARMERFOCUS
REPORTS FROM THE SHARP END…
The real world of dairy
farming is reflected in the
experiences of our
livestock producer
contributors. Heres the
latest news from our four
busy producers. Their
reports are from Carmarthen,
Co Durham, Leics
and Sussex
George Holmes
George Holmes farms 158ha
(390 acres) in mid-Sussex
having recently taken on an
extra 32ha (80 acres).
He has expanded the dairy
herd to 190 autumn calving
cows and 100 replacements.
His objective is to decrease
costs by increasing use
of grazed grass
MY CONTRACTORS have cut nearly three-quarters of my maize, but the first field in a block of three caused problems when it was too wet to travel on. The contractors got three tractors and trailers stuck on the first trip round the field.
This field is the access to two below and although they are dry enough to cut, we cannot get the crop out. I plan to wait a few weeks to see if a dry spell comes. Failing that we will clamp the crop in the field and move it when we can. The rest of the crop produced a good yield, so I am not too concerned.
We have too many cows still to calve and are nearly 10% behind last year for the same date. On the other hand, cows are milking well and are already yielding more than 27 litres/cow, which is over five litres up on the same time last year.
Milking cows came in at night on Oct 1, but they are still grazing during the day. The rest of the livestock are on grass alone, so we are already saving silage compared with last year.
I have made an effort to streamline calf feeding this year. I have set up a plastic barrel feeder for each calf pen. We leave the barrel in the pen and feed 2.5 litres of fermented milk a calf twice a day, without the need to wash the barrel after each feed. It is working well and we can give 40 calves their milk in less than 10 minutes.
My current worry is how little straw we have in stock. Our own wheat produced less than half the expected straw. I have taken delivery of another 40t, but we will probably need another 100t.
I am, therefore, looking for ways to keep straw use to a minimum this winter. One such measure is putting new Yorkshire boarding on the end of the heifer yard to keep straw dry, but I am not looking forward to clinging to the top of a ladder to do it. *
Cows have come in at night, but still are grazing during the day and yields are up, says George Holmes.