We have resigned ourselves that we face an expensive winter. Calving continues but the cows are often in too low a body condition to produce an outstanding amount of milk. This is due to the grass shortage we have faced all summer.
The saga of delayed cubicle building continues, not to be built until next spring. So the shedding gate [drafting gate in Britain] is being used to good advantage, in that the fresh calvers and higher yielders are shed to feed first on the ration and then allowed access to a straw barn, while the low yielders have the old cubicles.
The cost of straw will be prohibitive but I could not stand a recurrence of the problems of mastitis and lameness which the overcrowded cubicles cause last winter.
Although I am concerned that we are not leaving enough cover for next spring, the back wall of the silage clamp is perilously close
The cows are still out at grass by day, but although I am concerned that we are not leaving enough cover for next spring, the back wall of the silage clamp is perilously close. The plan is to feed brewers grains, fodder beet and grass silage until Christmas and then maize and grass silage and brewer’s grains until turnout.
Finally, there are gloomy predictions of milk price fall, against fast rising costs of production. I have realised that in the current situation one should be a gloomy optimist.
Good ship Brexit
The good ship Brexit flounders through the stormy waters of obstruction, challenged on all sides by the new power force patrolling the corridors of Westminster. These are backbenchers from various parties, who are normally powerless but are flexing their muscles through the power of obstruction. They are like a child with a machine gun, power without responsibility. They should be called The Peacock Party as they preen their feathers of self-aggrandisement.
Since the Prime Minister is determined not to call another referendum, my only hope is he or she who is in power at the time with choose or be forced to call a snap election between Christmas and the New Year.
The Brexit MPs of all parties will find themselves in the cold as people flock to Remain MPs. The great British public is now at last becoming aware of the true cost of leaving Europe.
Welsh lamb
One example is the welsh farmers who voted almost to a man to leave. Leaving aside the realisation of the loss of Less Favoured area payments, they have now woken up to the fact that there isn’t enough refrigerated storage for the lamb carcases we can no longer sell into Europe. If they do sell into Europe, they have to produce to EU standards. So much for getting rid of EU regulations.
Also how obstructive and delaying will French officials be with refrigerated lorries entering France with lamb carcases. Will they hold the lorries until the product is ruined? Perish the thought!
Read more
UFU 'cautiously welcomes' draft Brexit deal
Economic – not political – lens needed for Brexit
Farmers urged to avoid complacency on fodder deficits
Farmer Writes: any idiot can tell you that Brexit is going well
We have resigned ourselves that we face an expensive winter. Calving continues but the cows are often in too low a body condition to produce an outstanding amount of milk. This is due to the grass shortage we have faced all summer.
The saga of delayed cubicle building continues, not to be built until next spring. So the shedding gate [drafting gate in Britain] is being used to good advantage, in that the fresh calvers and higher yielders are shed to feed first on the ration and then allowed access to a straw barn, while the low yielders have the old cubicles.
The cost of straw will be prohibitive but I could not stand a recurrence of the problems of mastitis and lameness which the overcrowded cubicles cause last winter.
Although I am concerned that we are not leaving enough cover for next spring, the back wall of the silage clamp is perilously close
The cows are still out at grass by day, but although I am concerned that we are not leaving enough cover for next spring, the back wall of the silage clamp is perilously close. The plan is to feed brewers grains, fodder beet and grass silage until Christmas and then maize and grass silage and brewer’s grains until turnout.
Finally, there are gloomy predictions of milk price fall, against fast rising costs of production. I have realised that in the current situation one should be a gloomy optimist.
Good ship Brexit
The good ship Brexit flounders through the stormy waters of obstruction, challenged on all sides by the new power force patrolling the corridors of Westminster. These are backbenchers from various parties, who are normally powerless but are flexing their muscles through the power of obstruction. They are like a child with a machine gun, power without responsibility. They should be called The Peacock Party as they preen their feathers of self-aggrandisement.
Since the Prime Minister is determined not to call another referendum, my only hope is he or she who is in power at the time with choose or be forced to call a snap election between Christmas and the New Year.
The Brexit MPs of all parties will find themselves in the cold as people flock to Remain MPs. The great British public is now at last becoming aware of the true cost of leaving Europe.
Welsh lamb
One example is the welsh farmers who voted almost to a man to leave. Leaving aside the realisation of the loss of Less Favoured area payments, they have now woken up to the fact that there isn’t enough refrigerated storage for the lamb carcases we can no longer sell into Europe. If they do sell into Europe, they have to produce to EU standards. So much for getting rid of EU regulations.
Also how obstructive and delaying will French officials be with refrigerated lorries entering France with lamb carcases. Will they hold the lorries until the product is ruined? Perish the thought!
Read more
UFU 'cautiously welcomes' draft Brexit deal
Economic – not political – lens needed for Brexit
Farmers urged to avoid complacency on fodder deficits
Farmer Writes: any idiot can tell you that Brexit is going well
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