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As another year draws to a close, it sees us entering our ninth year of farming in our own right as well as our eldest child reaching double figures.
These little milestones tend to make us take stock of life and what is actually important. And watching Doddie Weir receive the Helen Rollason award at the BBC Sports Review of the Year awards, and manage to deliver a truly awesome and inspiring speech, doesn’t half give you a kick up the backside to be grateful for what you have.
As a well-known rugby and farming legend, Doddie is proving what can be achieved in life with the right attitude and not taking anything too seriously – Doddie; keep up the good fight.
As far as farming goes, we have had a fairly steady year with a hangover from 2018 (hampering lambing percentage and therefore output), keeping us on our toes from a cashflow point of view. It has also made me think about the direction of our business.
We need to be more ruthless and radical, whether that is with breeding decisions with stock or perhaps even a complete system change
I still believe our vision of further developing our low-input, forage-based systems is right, but more work needs to be done on genetics and management to get to the performance figures we need to develop further.
It is very easy to buy a new breed of tup and put a few electric wires up and think you’ve cracked it, but no two farming systems are the same and attention to detail over the whole unit is really important.
We need to be more ruthless and radical, whether that is with breeding decisions with stock or perhaps even a complete system change.
But I’m sure many of you will agree that changes to systems and undertaking investments are easier when we are making money, so our priority has to be consistently focused on profitability and maximising the potential of the farm.
For the meantime, we have decided to hold our breeding ewe and suckler cow numbers where they are.
The breeding hind numbers will increase as planned and we may also look to bring some cattle on to graze at peak grass growth. As we improve the grazing management and quality on the farm, there will be opportunities to increase stocking, but for now we are looking to improve our performance figures first.
Christmas
I love this time of year, not only because of the extra food and drink on offer but it is one of the few times I don’t feel too guilty for slowing down and taking a bit of time off.
Our kids are at a brilliant age and Christmas is a great time to get them out and involved, as well as have some fun off the farm. I wish all of you the best of luck in what you plan on achieving in 2020 and whatever it is, get the heed doon and gie it laldy!
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