With improving soil fertility leading to an increase in grass growth and a large carryover of silage, Andy decided to take 5.5 hectares of poorer-performing grass out and put it into swedes for a year before turning it back to grass. After ploughing and discing, the swedes were sown by a contractor with a one-pass power harrow and precision drill.

The plan is to feed the 56 spring-calving Highland cross Shorthorns on the swedes. The March-calving cows will be put on to the swedes in early November and Andy plans to keep them there until the end of January. Having taken test weights from the swedes, yield has been determined to be 12.5t of dry matter. Based on the length of the field, the cattle will be allocated 3m of swedes per day alongside two bales of hay and ad-lib minerals. Pre-calving, the cows will be moved to the hill near to the farm when they will go on to a silage-based diet along with a pre-calving mineral bucket.

260 hay bales to supplement fodder

Just over 150 bales of hay were made at home this year, with 110 bales purchased from a neighbour at £10 per bale. This equates to £46/t of dry matter.

Five hectares of stubble turnips was also established in early summer. It will be used for finishing the remaining 230 Blackface and Mule lambs from the 2020 lamb crop. They have already been treated with Ovivac and were recently dosed for fluke and worms. They will be moved on to the turnips in the next 10 days and will graze three-quarters of the field of stubble turnips. To balance their diet, they will get good-quality baled silage. A draw is expected in a month and Andy plans to have all the lambs away by the end of January.

The other quarter of the stubble turnips will be fed to the continental spring-calving suckler cows. They will work from the opposite side of the field from the lambs and will also be fed two bales of hay per day.

The diet has been planned to last until the cows come in for calving in late January. The amount of hay fed per day can be increased or decreased to meet that date.

Fodder crop costs

While both fields had lime applied prior to the forage crops going in, the cost of this has not been counted in these calculations as they were maintenance dressings and apply to all crops in the fields. Contractors sowed both fields, with the swedes coming in at £60/ha for the one-pass precision drill. The stubble turnips were established using a standard air seeder at £30/ha.