John Yeomans
John Yeomans
John Yeomans farms 89ha
(220 acres) of mixed hill
and upland near Newtown
in mid-Wales. The farm is
split between hill and
upland, with the hill land in
two blocks running up to
426m (1400ft). It is
stocked with 70 suckler
cows, including some
Limousins and 540 breeding
sheep, mostly Beulahs
OUR vet says it always lifts his spirits to come to us. However bad his day, it always looks good compared with ours.
Reversing into the shed with the loader door open, I broke the door latch then accidentally locked myself out. Coming from Birmingham, our mechanic thought Id have broken in and driven away in 30 seconds. We ended up taking the window out.
On a brighter note, scrapie testing went well. Of 51 rams tested, 21 rams and ram lambs tested are group one ARR x ARR genotype. Most of the rest will be culled, which I hope will benefit us financially when the autumn ram sales come around.
Ewes are now housed and shorn having scanned at 150%, including 17 barren (3%). Dry ewe lambs have returned to the hill, while 44 tupped Mule ewe lambs that were unsold in autumn have now been sold to a regular customer.
We have also sold our first bull for 18 months. Its good to start returning to some normality. Roll on Bishops Castle May sale.
Calving has gone well, so far. High iodine boluses seem to sharpen calves up no end, although we had to put one young cow down because she prolapsed badly.
Before the rain came we had started to coppice, replant and double fence some poor lengths of hedge. By we, I mean Philip and Paul – the fastest fencers in the west. Weve had no grant aid, but the job was urgent for stock control and the three-year wait for our Welsh agri-environment scheme payments was not an option.
We had a good family break for a couple of days to London and saw many of the sights. The main reason for our visit was an invitation to St Jamess Palace for a reception with 250 others, hosted by Prince Charles.
I wrote to him during the depths of foot-and-mouth to thank him for speaking up for the countryside and he hosted the dinner as a morale booster. It was a real treat for us, particularly as next week is the first anniversary of the start of F&M. *
John Yeomans attentions have turned to fencing recently, a job which had become urgent for stock control.