We grazed the dairy herd for two weeks in December because the grass was there and it could be under water in February.

They then went out in mid-January, days only. We brought them back in for 10 days because of snow.

But since then, grazing has been good, although I have had to let the paddocks get too long for the last two months to feed the expanded herd of 120 cows on paddocks designed for 90.

Buffer feeding

Up until June, the prodigious grass growth had kept up with the cows, but now the longer grass needed to satisfy appetite, the lower quality has affected milk yield.

We’re now drying the autumn calvers off and contemplating buffer feeding.

On 7 May, we made 70 acres of what appeared to be excellent silage.

The pessimist in me said this was all going too well – there’s something awful coming down the road. I was right.

Tests

On Sunday evening, I suffered an acute heart attack and was rushed into hospital.

After various tests, I was wheeled into the acute cardiac ward at 2am.

As I saw the sign over the door, I realised that if I was able to walk back out of those doors there had to be serious lifestyle changes.

I saw the surgeon at 9am and at 9.30am was wheeled into theatre.

On Monday, after two hours of having a stent fitted, I came out a new man.

Warning signs

This left me contemplating how I had ignored the warning signs.

We had increased the size of the dairy herd and followers without increasing staffing levels.

We had embarked on a furious building expansion programme.

This, coupled with a vast amount of paperwork and decision-making involved in farming today, resulted in me working longer hours than I ever had done.

Time to sit and read a newspaper from cover to cover every day

I spent a while comparing this with the sedentary life my father had lived.

Milking twice a day, hay making once a year and time to sit and read a newspaper from cover to cover every day.

All winter I had suffered cold hands and feet due to poor circulation.

I needed a bucket of water to keep warm in my hands during morning milking.

On returning home from hospital, I discovered the wife, son-in-law and daughter had stepped forward and seemed to be doing a better job of running the farm than I could have done.

Lucky

Monday, they’d emptied the slurry pit, Tuesday and Wednesday they’d laid concrete, Thursday and Friday made second-cut silage.

I was very lucky to have this team waiting in the wings, although feel I must take some credit for having trained them so well over the years.

Every disaster hides an opportunity and the incident released a powerful force waiting in the wings.

How many family farms have an old patriarch who will not give up because he feels the next generation isn’t ready?

And yet I am amazed how well everything is going.

Health room

I now realised the benefit of the health room at Sedgemoor Market.

Sedgemore Market is the biggest and best livestock centre (mart) in the southwest.

The building of this market was instigated by the late great Derek Mead. A truculent man but a great achievement.

Derek died in a tragic farming accident, but he had already set up a walk-in health room on market day, where farmers could walk in for a health assessment.

Check

I am sure a health check would normally be very low down on a farmer's list of priorities.

Working farmers can easily delude themselves that since they work physically in an outdoor environment they are fit and healthy.

Perhaps the health and safety inspection should have a tick list for a health checkup, not compulsory but plus points.

After all, when a department shows such concern for the safety of farmers, is it a good idea for people operating dangerous machinery to avoid strokes?

Should milk buyers encourage their producers to have health checks?

After all, a dead producer is a lost producer.

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