Hay lost in barn blaze

4 August 2000

Hay lost in barn blaze

FIVE years ago, we managed to burn one of our barns containing 130t of hay, some of which may have heated, writes Tim Green. Almost to the day we have again lost all our hay albeit only about 35t this year and not for the same reason.

This years crop was made in excellent conditions and stacked next to the house and milking parlour in a narrow band under an open shed. The fire started at about 2pm without warning and wrecked one-third of the cowshed together with the hay and minor items. There was no electricity in the shed since the big storm on Boxing Day, so the only way the fire could have started was a spark from a tractor which was parked nearby. Arson is not likely, although a farmer lost a lot more hay from criminal damage some miles away. One of our neighbours set fire to a trailer of hay with sparks from the exhaust while travelling along the main road.

Ironically, this would have been the last winter for the barn because we intended to convert the building to cubicles and bring everything up to standard. There is no chance of rebuilding this winter because all the firms are booked fully after the storm so we will have to manage with the building in its present sad state. Although that will not be easy, it is not impossible. This year has now seen all the transparent roof sheets destroyed either by the storm, massive hailstones or fire.

That means even more cattle will have to be outwintered, so every effort will be made to grow a catch crop after the cereals. Only the winter barley has been harvested. It yielded just over 5t/ha (2t/acre), which was close to expectations after lodging and constant battering by rain. Some sprouted barley left us with more unripe grains than is practical for safe storage.

All has been sold off the field for an initial payment of £60/t with a top-up payment later. The first sample was 16.4% moisture, but full loads were delivered at 15.5% and 14% as the day wore on. The specific weight on both loads was 65.2, which is surprisingly good for Vimer. Our contractor had recently travelled 425 miles after finishing harvest in the south and will travel back for the maize grain when he has finished wheat and barley in Normandy.

Combining difficult

Combining the barley was far from easy. Even with lifting tines on the front the contractor still had to stop frequently because of lifting stones on our flint-ridden fields.

I hope the wheat will do better and we will be able to keep some back for feeding. Judging by the quality of our maize, that will be necessary. All the maize crops around here are, at best, irregular and in some areas disastrous. So we will have to consider buying in bulk feed, which will put our margins under severe pressure.

After all our mishaps there is no incentive to increase sheep numbers and we will continue to reduce the flock through natural wastage. Since good barren ewes are making £30 to £40 while poor ones are fetching nothing, we will try to get some flesh back on our ewes after the lambs have been weaned.

Relatively few lambs have been sold pre-weaning this year and average lambs are making 270-280p/kg dw. Good lambs qualifying for the premium schemes will fetch between £3.30 and £3.50/kg carcass.

Having recently clipped our ewes at 80p a head, we will not be rushing to claim our wool cheques because the wool is forecast at 25p/kg. Poor quality wool is worth nothing. Perversely, valueless wool and sheep are still worth more than a dead cow bearing in mind disposal costs. We nearly had to face that problem recently after a case of redwater fever. This devastating tick-borne disease is a parasitic protazoan, which attacks the red blood cells. The symptoms are high temperature, anaemia and, most noticeably, blood in the urine. We thought the problems were stress related after the fire which resulted in smoke getting everywhere and a very late milking. But fortunately, our cowman Jacques spotted the classic red- water symptom.

If the cow had died we would have had to notify our vet to provide a certificate. The cows carcass would be tested for BSE at the abattoir. That is now standard practice for all cattle over two years old.

So, as I nearly found out to my cost, a live sheep is always worth more than a dead redwater cow.

Sizing up the Vimer flock: Tim Green has come to the conclusion that sheep numbers should be reduced by natural wastage. Barren ewes are being encouraged to put some meat back on after weaning so that they fetch the better prices of £30-40 a head.