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Zoe and Maurice Davey farm 170 all grass acres (some rented) at Northlew near Okehampton Devon. We milk 95
An archive of Zoe's articles is available. Read on for her latest news...
September 2011
After all that patchy grazing over the last few weeks the beginning of last month saw us awash with grass. Feast or famine it seems. The cows were happy strip grazing good after-grass and we kept them there while we silaged some of the more well grown paddocks in an effort to rejuvenate the grazing there.
A growing problem (if you will excuse the pun!) has been the dock population. It seems to have exploded this year so we were very interested to receive an invitation from Masstock to visit their trial farm at Ashwater. They had 10 plots of ground that had each received a different treatment for dock control, some once, some twice as well as those clover safe or not. Some of the results were quite startling given the level of docks in the control area. It has given us the confidence to do some spraying ourselves and the initial results look encouraging although we are planning to hit it all again in the spring as well. The biggest headache has been getting as much area as possible ready to spray at the same time. It all has to be left 2 weeks before the cows can graze again so once again we find ourselves tight on grass. Still, seeing all those curly wurly docks is a good feeling and worth a bit of a struggle.
We have been silaging here and there as the weather allows, mostly just Maurice and I doing it between us and between milkings! A bit slow but very cheap. Both clamps are completely full and with half of last year’s third cut piled up behind the silage clamps anything cut from now on will have to be baled. We have already done 3rd cut on many fields and one or two are looking nearly ready to be cut for a fourth time. It’s great to get a good stock of forage but I do wonder what we shall do next year if we have another large crop of grass. I know what Maurice would say – buy more mouths to eat it, and maybe he’s right. We shall have to wait and see.
Protein has recovered a little in the milk, crept up over 3 and BF is 3.9 so some improvement there. I don’t think we are going to see anything any better until they come in again. Vet visit this month didn’t throw up any cystic cows so that was encouraging, PDs weren’t too bad either, so maybe we have turned the corner on the energy deficit.
For quite a few years we have reared all our surplus bull calves to finishing but with the price of cake going up and up not to mention straw we have revisited our costings. I made a spreadsheet to show the margin on a barley bull when the various costs change. I was pleased with it because you can change the price of straw or the pence per kilo from the abbatoir and then it shows up straight away how that impacts on the return. It’s not very encouraging reading all the same. With so many calves now going for export it is likely that beef will be short in a year’s time, but will that have enough impact on the price to make rearing them worthwhile? It is so hard to judge, but all farming is a gamble one way or another and we just have to make the best guess we can at the time.
There permanently seems to be a building project of some kind on the go but the one that has got to the top of the list now is finishing the bunker shed. Half of the sheeted doors are made although carrying the first one up from the workshop nearly finished the chaps off. I think after that they came up on the pallet tines! A gentle reminder that we are not so young as we once were. The block work for the back walls is due to be done next week so I can see that the building will get finished very suddenly.
The shed is a funny shape, built to take advantage of an awkward wasted space so once the bunkers are accounted for there is a triangle left at the end. This is going to be my little house for keeping calf stuff and I am really looking forward to it being finished. I have such a sad life that I dream of shelves, cupboards and putting things away, not to mention running water and a sink!
A new addition to the farm just recently has been Tilly the border collie puppy. Our other dog is getting on a bit now and has very definite ideas about rounding up sheep that don’t always coincide with ours which is stressful to say the least. I have often wondered if would be able to train a sheep dog, now I have the opportunity to try. It will be interesting if nothing else. For now she is finding her feet and is proving adept at rounding up cows, chickens and torturing the cats. Quite a character!
If you would like to contact Zoe or comment on her blog you can now contact her directly by email at eastkimber@hotmail.co.uk.
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