Ali Gordon

Beef and sheep

Who would have thought after all the rain we had in April that we would be crying out for rain now! Everything is tinder dry and we are very short of grass. The east coast definitely hasn’t had the best grass growing season this year so far. Rainfall for May was 14.5mm. Fortunately we had two and a half weeks of sea haar at the end of the month which, despite making looking at the stock a bit difficult, did provide a wee bit of moisture and kept temperatures low too.

The cows went out on 17 May which was five days earlier than last year. However, we are now putting straw out to them and it is disappearing fast. We are fortunate to have some straw bales left as the “shelves are bare” for many farmers this spring. After applying the fertiliser it took some time to disappear due to the dry conditions. It doesn’t look like the silage crop will be record-breaking this season and straw could be in short supply again.

The heifers have finished calving and it was a mixed bag this year. The first one to calve turned out to be a kicker so, after 10 days of going into the stocks to suckle the calf, we required a set on so that sorted that problem out. We also had a case of necrotic laryngitis which I haven’t seen before, also referred to as “barker calves”. The vet had only seen one other case in her time. A course of antibiotics has improved the condition. Fortunately it never set the calf back; it always managed to suck and was bright despite the barking cough. It seems to have been a year for farmers to see an unusual ailment amongst their stock.

It’s always satisfying to draw the first lambs of the season and get them loaded up and away while the trade is good. It’s a fortnight later than last year but the lambs are now thriving and looking fleshy. So they should as I am using 5t of creep feed a week. I decided to try the top-end creep at 18% protein with a higher content of soya than the other feed and was told they wouldn’t eat as much of it being higher-quality. I have to admit they don’t seem to eat as much of it and it works out at 2p/kg more expensive.

The lambs are all sold through Farmstock (Scotland) and this load went down to Dawn Meats at Carnaby. They averaged 20.16kg and the price was £5.40/kg/dwt however the price won’t stay there for long. The abattoirs are only quoting a price up to two days in advance at the moment, normally it is weekly. Earlier in the spring we had heard Dunbia saying the price wouldn’t go below £5/kg until at least September but I can’t see this being the case sadly! Ramadan doesn’t end until mid-June so it will be interesting to see what the price does then.

New ventures

Better weather has brought the tourists out to this special part of the country which brings about the odd problem of moving livestock! It seems everyone wants to photograph sheep being driven along by a collie dog. In some parts of the world, albeit poorer countries mainly, shepherds ask for a fee to photograph their prize possessions, I’m wondering how the tourists would feel about that here?!

I have got the go-ahead to establish a small Caravan Club site here on the farm so that is my next project, it seems everyone wants a hook up so there is quite a bit of work to do. If the ground remains like concrete it could be tricky to dig a hole of any kind.