Miles Saunders
Miles Saunders
Miles Saunders farms in
partnership with his parents
on an organic, mixed 370ha
(915-acre) farm in
Oxfordshire. Main enterprises
are 200 milking cows and
followers, 190 Mule ewes, 50
beef cross stores and 70 beef
cross calves. Winter wheat,
barley, oats and beans are
also grown, and sold on the
organic market
THIS past year has had its financial ups and downs for us, but the net results are similar to the previous year.
The dairy herd was the bright spot with good prices and yields and a tight check on all costs. Beef and sheep enterprises have also held their own. Prices have been good and with plenty of grass always in front of them their growth rates have been pleasing.
Cereals, however, have been disappointing. Damp weather meant that we were unable to harrow comb crops more than once on our heavy clay soils. Wild oats were a major problem and this resulted in a higher presence of green in crops at harvest, slowing the whole process down.
Much of the wheat was cleaned twice before sale, leaving a yield of 1.25t/acre, which was 0.5t/acre lower than previous years. But prices have been slightly higher than last year.
Wet weather has continued. We normally get an average rainfall of 540mm/year. This year to date we have had 600mm, with October rainfall amounting to 108mm. We still have about 200 acres of winter wheat to be planted.
I have had two sets of silage analysis done. The first set went straight in the bin, as they were so poor they were unreal, with a D-value of 55. The silage seemed much better than that.
A more recent analysis is more what I expected, but the protein level is a bit lower than I would have liked.
The analysis results are: First cut – 11.4ME, D-value 71, 13.8% crude protein, pH 3.5, second cut – 10.8ME, 68D, 14.9% protein and pH 4 and whole-crop – 10.1ME, 63D, 11.4% protein, pH 3.6 and 11% starch.
Last month, we took delivery of a new Keenan 140 mixer wagon, to replace the tired Keenan 100 which we have had for several years. The old machine wont be retired yet, as its new role will be feeding youngstock away from the main farm unit. The larger model allows me to save about 40min a day, as I only need to make three mixes as opposed to five. *