Down on the farm - winter work
AT one time on the farm the winter months were when the pressure came off and
all the other non-urgent “other jobs” got done. However, as things stand at the
moment we are continuing at the same pace as we were before Christmas!
All our cattle are in for the winter which obviously creates a lot of extra work. They have been split into three different groups: cows, young bulls and heifers. The cows are the main group in number and are due to calf now (mid January at the time of writing). We know when each cow is due to calf as on the Monday before Christmas they were all scanned, the results of which told us to within a few days when each cow was due and of course which cows were not in calf at all. I’m quite happy to be at the non working end when the scanning takes place, as our chap, who is an airline pilot the rest of the time!!!, will have his arm up to his armpit up the cow’s rectum so as his hand can be placed over the womb to press it into place so the scanner can pick up the results externally.
Whilst this job is being done an official from DEFRA (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) wanted to check all the identification tags, a legal requirement, that the cows have in their ears. This process, as well as being slow, is a very paperwork orientated exercise, as each cow’s tag must correspond exactly to all the official paperwork. Most of the time this is not a problem, but when we do get an animal where the tag is missing it seems to take forever to convince ministry personnel that it is the cow we say it is –they can lose a tag just by being outside in the summer.
This was all followed just two days later with the whole herd being put through again for a blood test to check for TB. Any cow testing positive will have to be put down. Our results are not back yet but I remain optimistic that all ours will be fine.
The rest of the cattle, which as mentioned above are divided into two groups, are in a pen for bulls and a pen for heifers (young cows). They are being fed ready for the beef market and their diet consists of barley straw and a feed concentrate which is high in protein. This year, chopped sugar beet has been included in the diet as there is so much of it about it is therefore a relatively cheap feed.
On the 11th January we put all the cows through the crush again so their tails and back ends could be clipped. This will assist us when calving starts and it is easier to keep them clean.
Whilst working on the cattle we also weighed the bulls and heifers to check how much they are growing. Most of the young stock has been putting on nearly two kilos A DAY over the last two months. When they are ready to sell they will go up to the cattle market in Newark, which is the closest market now for us to obtain a reasonable price.
When it’s not livestock there is plenty of machinery maintenance to keep us busy. When we start field work again the in the spring I always like everything to be in perfect condition so that we are not delayed by unnecessary breakdowns. In addition, good machinery maintenance is essential because with everything costing so much it has to last much longer than it has ever done in the past. Similarly, when a sprayer or fertiliser spreader is applying products they must be 100% accurate as firstly the products are so expensive that if they are over or under applied it is a waste of money and they will not do the job they are intended for; secondly, application recommendations are always made with the environment in mind and to exceed any dose would be wholly inappropriate; and thirdly, legislation is a very important consideration which cannot under any circumstances be ignored.
Under the 1986 Food and Environment Protection Act we have to abide by certain rules; these are all aimed at protecting our environment, the public and the end user of all farm products, such as wheat going to the mill for flour production. (Look for link coming up ….)
At the moment, we are sending a lot of wheat to mills mainly up north (spotted it?). This is due to the very wet harvest last year and the lack of good quality wheat in that part of the world.
The poor weather reduced their wheat to animal feed specification and they are looking to buy our milling grade wheat but this does not mean that we get a better price for it and in fact prices are down approximately £20.00/ton on this time last year. Needless to say production prices have not reduced and have in fact increased due to the rise in the cost of oil.
Other work at this time of the year includes hedging, ditching and tree maintenance. Never a dull moment!