Peter Wastenage
Peter Wastenage
Peter Wastenage, in
partnership with his parents,
farms a 121ha (300-acre)
farm tenanted from Clinton
Devon Estates. He milks 175
cows, rears his own
replacements and grows
40ha (100 acres) of maize
AFTER one of the busiest periods of the year, life now seems to be returning to normal, or as normal as ever in livestock farming. The 84 acres of maize was harvested by our regular contractor Steve Yeandle on Sept 23 and 24. As ever, a good job was done and the crop realised good yields with a high grain content.
The maize was a lot greener than usual at harvesting with an estimated dry matter of 28%. I consider this favourable, as in my view a drier crop causes greater clamp waste and more importantly the grains are not utilised properly. This is shown by past analysis of high DM silages where the cows have not performed to the expected level.
Once the final pit was sheeted, work commenced to prepare the maize ground for sowing grass seeds. The entire 84 acres was lightly scuffled twice before one application of 0:20:30 at a rate of 50kg/acre, after which 14kg/acre of Italian ryegrass mix was spread before Cambridge rolling twice. It was all hands on deck to get the seeds in before the rain, but two weeks on and we still havent seen a drop, hopefully when it does come it will be fairly light and temperatures will remain mild to give it a good start this autumn. These seeds will hopefully provide the early grass for the grazing rotation in February, with fields further from the farm being used by youngstock to minimise housing costs this winter.
Kale feed rates were increased for the dairy cows, but this was soon returned to the original feed rate after a few cows suffered from bloat. Fortunately, one treatment with drench rectified the problem enabling me to put the trocar and cannula away unused, hopefully it will remain so for a long time.
Last week we were fortunate enough to have Paul Bird and a grassland discussion group around the farm. I find it very refreshing to know there is at least one ally in our industry who is keen to keep costs down. After a trip to the Dairy Event, I consider it unbelievable the sums people spend on complete rubbish.
For some time we have needed a replacement for our old collie dog that had to be put down recently. We eventually took the bull by the horns and went to see a litter at North Molten. After a lengthy discussion among the partners (a family argument) we came away with two. If their herding instinct is anything as strong as their lungs, they should prove to be a good buy!n
Keeping costs down was the focus of a discussion group meeting held at Peter Wastenages, led by New Zealand consultant Paul Bird (left).