There is now less than a month when we will be able to spread slurry. In talking to a few dairy farmers last week, I was struck how none of them would consider going back to using a slurry tank routinely – all had switched to an umbilical system, usually with a dribble bar. The advantages in terms of lack of compaction, speed and cost are very definite. What I am not sure about is whether a system will handle slurry from an intensive high-energy diet with no diluting water except enough for agitation. I have a few weeks to do my research and see what the costs and possibilities are.
Part of the attraction of adapting to an umbilical-type system is that the yard is in the middle of the farm so everywhere should be within easy distance. What I am not so sure about is how I am going to treat the land the far side of the road which divides the place in two. If the system works well, we should be able to use one of the wide pipes that the council has put in for drainage to take the narrower slurry hose.
Meanwhile, the heavy growth of volunteers that I Round-upped during the dry spell has turned a uniform, golden yellow. I have seen some crops where a significant amount of green material remains. Some of the weed grass I have found needs a significantly higher dosage rate than ordinary volunteers but in cases there may well be resistance to Roundup, a real problem in parts of the US and South America where Roundup has been used intensively for a number of years.
This autumn, I was complimenting myself on the lowest-ever mortality in my bought-in weanlings but inevitably, you are brought down to earth with the disappointing discovery of a death for no particular reason in the shed. He had been treated the same as everyone else and they all seemed fine the day before. We will try and discover what caused the death but often, after 12 hours, a post-mortem yields very little.
With every single animal now safely in the sheds and not too crowded with most of the beef gone, the Christmas period should be a relatively easily managed time but it may be silly to be complacent as the scope for possible problems is enormous.
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Home Farm: Matt Dempsey
There is now less than a month when we will be able to spread slurry. In talking to a few dairy farmers last week, I was struck how none of them would consider going back to using a slurry tank routinely – all had switched to an umbilical system, usually with a dribble bar. The advantages in terms of lack of compaction, speed and cost are very definite. What I am not sure about is whether a system will handle slurry from an intensive high-energy diet with no diluting water except enough for agitation. I have a few weeks to do my research and see what the costs and possibilities are.
Part of the attraction of adapting to an umbilical-type system is that the yard is in the middle of the farm so everywhere should be within easy distance. What I am not so sure about is how I am going to treat the land the far side of the road which divides the place in two. If the system works well, we should be able to use one of the wide pipes that the council has put in for drainage to take the narrower slurry hose.
Meanwhile, the heavy growth of volunteers that I Round-upped during the dry spell has turned a uniform, golden yellow. I have seen some crops where a significant amount of green material remains. Some of the weed grass I have found needs a significantly higher dosage rate than ordinary volunteers but in cases there may well be resistance to Roundup, a real problem in parts of the US and South America where Roundup has been used intensively for a number of years.
This autumn, I was complimenting myself on the lowest-ever mortality in my bought-in weanlings but inevitably, you are brought down to earth with the disappointing discovery of a death for no particular reason in the shed. He had been treated the same as everyone else and they all seemed fine the day before. We will try and discover what caused the death but often, after 12 hours, a post-mortem yields very little.
With every single animal now safely in the sheds and not too crowded with most of the beef gone, the Christmas period should be a relatively easily managed time but it may be silly to be complacent as the scope for possible problems is enormous.
Read more
Home Farm: Matt Dempsey
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