Miles Saunders
Miles Saunders
Miles Saunders has been
farming organically since
1989. Main enterprises on
his 370ha (915-acre) Oxon
farm are 250 milking cows
and followers, 80 beef cattle
and 200 Mule ewes. Wheat
and beans are also grown
MAKING the farm simpler to manage and hopefully more efficient, is my latest venture. The first thing I have done is sell the sheep.
I was finding a flock of 180 ewes took too much time to manage with not enough reward. I was also fearful of proposed tagging and paperwork legislation that may become a burden in the coming months.
I was impressed by the help the local police gave, when needing to stop the traffic on a main A road near the holding, to allow a lorry and drag to reverse into an awkward gateway to load ewes. Before loading, the sheep had the last laugh, making sure they ran through a three-wire electric fence creating a tangle.
I have sold 16 cows on the over-30-month-scheme. I prepared for the 5.30am loading time the previous day, arming myself with licence, passports, and checking ear tag numbers closely before going out for the evening.
Returning at 11pm, I had a final check of the licence only to discover that I needed to clip hair off tails and put an arrow on the left hind rump. So my fiancé and I started clipping at 11.30pm.
I would like the ministry official who thought this would be a good idea to explain himself to the livestock industry and wonder whether he has any plans for sheep. Thank heavens I will not need to worry about that any more.
This autumn weather has been ideal for cows and they have been out during the day with outdoor access at night and the main feed available. Only needing to scrape out once a day saves time – we also save one mixer wagon session.
Bulling heifers are in now, with the aim of keeping the growth rate at 0.7kg/day, which should help fertility.
The other benefit of good weather is that land work has progressed well with virtually no days lost to rain. In fact leys being ploughed up are hard and taking a lot of breaking down. Most of our wheat is now planted and some beans are also in the ground. *
Good-bye sheep…Returns from Miles Saunders 180 ewes no longer justify the hassle of keeping them, so he is concentrating on dairying in future.