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We are farming in extraordinary times this week, with global events overshadowing all the usual decisions that we make within our farming businesses.
While the dry sunny weather is very welcome for both man and beast, it’s difficult to enjoy it with everything else going on in the background.
The priority off-farm is to keep everyone safe and healthy as much as possible, while the priority on farm is to do that and keep the show on the road and to keep making decisions and moving through the season as effectively as we are permitted.
The priority off-farm is to keep everyone safe and healthy as much as possible, while the priority on farm is to do that and keep the show on the road
We have seen many businesses shut down over the last few days with devastating consequences for the people affected. However, the alternative of people lying on hospital floors, unable to access treatment, is unthinkable.
Hopefully we don’t reach that stage in Ireland and all the social distancing and social isolation measures help to control the outbreak of the virus and make it manageable for our already overstretched health sector.
Minimise contact
On-farm, we are trying to minimise the contact with people outside as much as possible, but with the nature of the business, there are feed deliveries, milk collections and contractor jobs that need to be carried out on a daily or weekly basis, as well as the comings and goings of the people working on the farm.
We have hand-washing facilities available in the milking parlour, we are keeping our distance from the people providing these services and we are trying to minimise the amount of people that we need to visit the farm on a weekly basis. We will have to make a few more decisions over the next few weeks to minimise contact and the risk of exposure to COVID-19.
We are trying to minimise the amount of people that we need to visit the farm on a weekly basis
We have most of our slurry and fertiliser work up to date for the month due to the fine weather, but we will need to top up our silage ground over the next few weeks. This can be done at arm’s length with our contractor who has good farm maps, etc.
We also have some work to do on roadways and fencing, so maps for instructions and WhatsApp messages will have to be used a bit more to give clear instructions. We have our calf sales up to date and with only 30 odd cows left to calve, we might rear on these last few beef calves until we come out the far side of this.
Bull sales
Bull sales and collection will start over the next few weeks so we will have to have a look at how we manage this and minimise risk. With less AI breeding a possibility this spring and less mart sales, we will try to facilitate our regular customers as much as possible. We will all have to improve at electronic communication and transfers, etc, to get deals done.
We will also have to minimise the amount of people swapping between farm equipment such as tractors and quad bikes over the coming weeks. We will put gloves in everyone’s car to put on before entering farm.
The other thing that we need to do is to leave clear instructions in place if anything happens to any of us.
Hopefully the wheels keep turning in our dairy and meat plants and we won’t see too much disruption
A video of standard operation procedures might be a help to anyone replacing you on farm in the event of quarantine.
Hopefully the wheels keep turning in our dairy and meat plants and we won’t see too much disruption. As we reach peak supply in our dairy plants, any small problem can multiply up very quickly and cause a backlog.
Hopefully we can also keep the product moving offshore but we can’t take any of this for granted and we need to be prepared for whatever comes at us over the coming weeks.
If we don’t succeed in slowing the spread of the disease nationally with the measures taken, the unfortunate consequence is that this situation will continue for a longer period of time. This is still much better than the alternative.
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