Farm Diary

My goodness me what a change in weather. Straight from winter to summer (as discussed in this column two weeks ago), and a huge workload for a week or so to cope with the sudden change in fortunes.

My early drilled maize is up and thriving on the warm conditions; what luck it was that we took the risk. All the maize was drilled by the end of last week bar one area, where we are carting more muck, before cultivations and drilling.

All the cows have been out a week, and are enjoying the sunshine. They were all vaccinated last week with the 'Blue-tongue' vaccine, and we look forward to the day that they are totally immunised (around mid June).

We are cutting grass silage as I write this, and I hope to have most of it in the clamp by now. With all the moisture still in the ground, I look forward to a good second cut, and the quality of this first cut should be the best ever; the object being to cut down on expensive concentrates next winter. We will see.

I spent 3 hours last Friday filling in forms in order for my milk buyer to calculate my 'carbon-footprint'. This is so that they can calculate the average for the total supply, and then set about reducing it overall; nothing wrong with that, just as long as we are all being sensible (quite a lot to ask these days I'm afraid).

However, in order to be 'green', I need a profit, for investment and to enable us to do everything to the highest standards.

The barmiest idea introduced lately concerns the Trading Standards; who are recruiting 300 extra people in order to look at (animal) food hygiene on farms. This entails looking at the food the cow eats, from the field to the barn.

Following new regulations from the 1st of January, these bods will visit farms for hours on end looking at all feeds. They will examine grassland for poisonous weeds or contamination.

They will be looking for Ragwort and hemlock; wire, glass, as a result of fly-tipping. Will they tackle my neighbours and the local authority about the ragwort growing freely against my boundaries, with seeds floating over in the air year on year?

They will examine all feed storage areas in the yard, and in particular, serious breaches such as having dog food anywhere near cattle feed. As your average 'pooch' is still being fed meat and bone meal, finding such breaches, where cattle may have had their feed contaminated with dog food could result in the animals being destroyed, and the farm closed down.

I kid you not! Recently some imported wheat feed (from Sweden) had traces of bone meal as a result of contamination (on the ship?). There has been a big fuss, but it had all been fed by the time it was traced to farms.

My feed wagon will be inspected for traces of old feed around the edge of the tub, and I will be told that it must be cleaned at least once a week (I can see conflict with health and Safety Executive here). My loader buckets will be examined to see if they are clean, and all silages and moist feeds will be inspected for moulds.

Water troughs will be inspected to see if they are clean, and best of all, I will be questioned (I am told) about procedures to eliminate risk of 'animal protein' being present in the silage; that is a dead rabbit or two being chopped up in the silage after being caught by the mower.

The odd rabbit is killed by the mower. Foxy normally takes advantage of such 'ready-meals', and removes the 'animal protein' for us before the forager arrives the next day. However, this has highlighted a serious problem in the South West, where too many badgers, and diseased ones at that, does result in many being killed by farm machinery (as well as cars of course), and some by the mower.

I would be very concerned by a diseased badger with TB contaminating my silage; another reason to get on top of this terrible disease as soon as possible.

Japan has been hit with butter shortages as demand outstrips supply. The deficit began last November, and some shelves are now bare! 200g of imported French butter now costs 10.00! This is partly due to import tariffs of 30%, which may now be cut in order to alleviate matters.

Our own milk production in the UK continues to fall, with further price increases announced this week. The latest 'Farmers Intentions' survey (conducted by Dairy Co) shows that UK milk production will continue to fall in the future.

It will not be easy to reverse this trend after the years of low prices and abuse, which has sapped the morale and the enthusiasm for producing milk on farms. It makes me livid.

This was first published in the West Sussex Gazette May 14. To read it first, buy the West Sussex Gazette every Wednesday.