Kevin Daniel
Kevin Daniel
Kevin Daniel has a mixed lowland holding near Launceston, Cornwall. The 65ha (160 acres) farm and 20ha (50 acres) of rented ground supports 70 Simmental cross suckler cows, 380 Border Leicester cross Suffolk ewes and 28ha (70 acres) arable.
DULL, humid weather during August has been frustrating for the cereal harvest but ideal for grass growth.
I cannot remember so much grass at Trebursye at this time of year, in contrast to the past two years, when straw and maize gluten were already being fed to cattle.
Creep feeding for the calves started at the end of August, with a home-mix ration of 70% barley, 14% soya, 12% sugar beet shreds and 4% molasses. This is offered to calves in five place creep feeders, and hoppers are kept full to provide ad lib feeding. But with the abundance of grass, and cows still milking well, uptake has been slow.
To shear or not to shear the lambs, is always the question at this time of year. Advantages with shearing are faster growth rates and cleaner lambs, especially when feeding turnips in the autumn. Disadvantages are a £3 deduction a shorn lamb at the abattoir and the cost of shearing at 60p, although this is offset by the wool value of about £1 a fleece.
So at weaning in mid-August all lambs were carefully weighed and handled. This resulted in 120 lambs in the 35-40kg weight range being left unshorn, 350 lambs below 35kg and 80 replacement ewe lambs were shorn. At the same time 43 lambs were selected for slaughter and sent to our local abattoir, HR Jasper & Sons, where they averaged 19kg dead weight, 42 graded EUR 2/3L, with one fatty letting the side down at U4L. They returned £45 a head, or 236p/kg, 16p/kg up on last year – hooray!
With several older rams culled last autumn and one Suffolk shearling drawing his last breath in the spring, we needed to buy seven rams to keep the ram-to-ewe ratio at 1:30. Three Lleyns and two Suffolk rams were duly bought from local breeders, chosen on estimated breeding values and scanning results, with eye appeal having the last say.
Two Texel rams were added after a trip to the NSA Exeter sale. They will be making their debut at Trebursye this autumn with the aim of producing a lamb of good conformation that can be taken on into the autumn/winter without becoming over-fat. Also with increasing Lleyn blood in the flock, we felt a Texel would complement the Lleyn better than a Suffolk.
All rams were wormed and vaccinated with Heptavac P on arrival home, and are now receiving 0.5kg of concentrate a day to keep them fit until November. *
Kevin Daniel has bought more ram power for his flock. Three Lleyns, two Texels and two Suffolks were bought to keep the ram:ewe ratio at 1:30.