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.
ISNT it nice to have finished harvest. The wet weather meant that some of the straw got wet and had to be turned several times, and unfortunately in some fields the straw had started to rot, so we landed up chopping it. Ploughing and cultivations are well under way, with land turning over well this year following the damp summer months.
Currently, effort is also being put into selling some of the surplus cereals. Prices seem to be down about £30/tonne from last year, but still a high premium compared to conventional prices. We also aim to put all the cereal harvest through the cleaner before sale, including the portion we intend to feed ourselves. The reason we clean the cereal we intend to feed is to reduce the possibility of the weed seeds passing through the cows and back onto the fields.
The milking cows are currently split into three groups. The fresh calvers are milking well, averaging 27 litres on 8kg of concentrate, made up of organic beans, organic barley, linseed expeller and wheat gluten. The medium yielders receive 2kg and the low yielding group, no concentrate. The appropriate concentrate is mixed with silage for each group. The silage is being fed as a buffer to reduce risk of bloat with the excessive levels of clover that are about this year.
All the seed has been ordered for this autumn. We will be sticking to the varieties that seem to do us well, namely Hereward wheat, Fighter barley and Punch beans. We intend to drop oats this year, because of lack of demand.
To accomplish all the land and stock work, our workforce has increased. We are currently employing a herdsman; a stockperson, who leaves at the end of the month; two general farm workers, who are capable of doing most things; and a student. We also have one self-employed general farm worker who is currently working afternoons and nights for us, to enable us to keep the hire tractor working on the heavy work to be done.
We are hosting a farm open day on October 6, organised by the Organic Milk Suppliers Cooperative, for anyone interested in converting to organic dairy production. A farm walk in the morning is followed after lunch by four speakers, who will cover the topics of converting, financial studies of farms in conversion, milk markets and beef and cereal markets. For further information please contact OMSC Tel: 01934-750244, Fax: 01934-750080. *
Miles Saunders is feeding silage as a buffer to reduce risk of bloat in the three milking groups as there are excessive levels of clover in swards this year.