Farm Diary

As ever, Glebedale's (the contractors) excelled themselves by working until midnight both nights.

I sheeted the clamp, and as I walked into the house in the early hours, it started to rain; perfect timing. We knew the rain was coming, and I fully expected something to go wrong, but in fact it all went like clockwork.

This is the earliest we have ever cut our grass silage, and I had booked the date with Neil Clarkson months ago, as I am desperate to improve the quality of our forage for next winter due to the doubling of feed prices.

With 12 days sunshine before cutting, and perfect conditions, plus the speed of ensilement and an additive; I can do no more. The tonnage was greater than I expected, with almost 3000 tonnes in the clamp of dry material. We shall cut again in 40 days.

Frank Tyndall who is a leading dairy (grassland specialist) consultant in Australia and runs the McAlister demonstration farm in Victoria, commented that it really is incredible how much investment we have to commit to in the UK, in the form of all the grass silage we make, and all the maize silage we grow.

In Victoria, the cows graze and receive concentrates in the parlour, and four weeks later you get a cheque for the milk. Over here, the average dairy farmer will make around 10 tonnes of forage per cow, and the cost per tonne has risen to a minimum of 25, and will ride up on the back of oil prices (contracting costs, diesel, fertilizer etc:).

Our cow grazing is halfway through the first round, and we are really grazing some very big grass covers indeed. This is silage cut territory, and we have cut as many silage paddocks as we dare, but there are another thirty acres or so of 6 tonne covers to graze before we start the second round, where we will be really on top of the grass, and possibly running short.

The cows have now adjusted to tackling these high covers, but we are not asking them to graze down as hard as we would normally due to the fibrous nature of the base as the grass becomes stemmy.

We have resisted following with the mower to tidy things up for two reasons. The regrowth when the grass is left with a taller residual is phenomenal, and I am relying on very fast regrowth to keep us out of trouble in a week's time; if I mow the grass to the desired two inch residual, I will certainly compromise that regrowth.

I also want to see if Frank Tyndall's experimental work with grazing in Australia works over here. Frank has been grazing very long covers, leaving taller (untidy) residuals, but experiencing huge regrowth, and finding himself with massive production due to the ability of taller residuals to harvest sunlight and push the growth of the plant.

It does not look pretty, and it may need correcting with a mower, but it certainly produces the goods in terms of regrowth, and as usual is not new.

An amazing dairy farmer in Surrey, Mr Willie Wainhouse, used to always graze high covers, and maintained that the extra fibre and the deep rooted nature of the grass due to it's height provided his cows with a more balanced diet in terms of slightly more fibre and trace elements. Willie Wainhouse is no longer with us, but he was one of the best grassland farmers around.

The pig and poultry fair took place at Stoneleigh Park in Warwickshire last week. The pig sector is an example to every other sector of how standards applicable to UK only are undermined by cheaper imports. 70% of imported pig meat (accounting for 50% of total UK consumption) does not meet minimum legislative standards. The national sow herd has plummeted from 820,000 breeding sows to under 400,000 sows and is still falling sharply.

I am told that in addition to our schools, hospitals, prisons and defence establishments who all feed the imported pig meat in their canteens, I can add the House of Commons to the list! The very people who pushed the legislation through. The number of pigs reared in higher welfare systems in Europe is also falling, as cheaper imports steal their markets. A bit of an own goal wouldn't you say?