Farmer Focus: Still standing after rain, ice and snow

The weather this past month has certainly not got any better. Our bridge to the farm was flooded. We had never seen the water so high in all of our time at East Logan.

We were relieved when the water finally calmed down to see that our bridge was still standing.

Then came the snow and ice, which saw an afternoon of towing Michael’s girlfriend’s car up to the farm with the JCB handler.

Holstein UK’s 2015 All-Britain Awards finalists have been announced and we were very fortunate to receive two All-Britain nominations with Logan Sid Edie and Logan Goldsun Belle 2. We will just have to wait until 12 March to discover our fate.

At the Semex Conference in Glasgow, Michael was announced as Holstein UK’s president’s medal winner.

It looks like he will have to have more time off the farm, as he has won a visit to the Royal Winter Fair in Canada with Semex and a trip to youth conference in Argentina.

See also: Scottish awards success with Holsteins

On the back of his health and safety course, Michael has also been busy revising for his spraying course. Due to all the legislation out there nowadays we have to have one authorised person on the farm that can legally buy pesticides. Luckily, Michael has passed.

It has been that time of the year that Farm Assurance comes around. We now have to apply to the Arla Gaarden in order to sell our milk to Arla since we are on their contract.

Fortunately, they were happy with everything on the farm, which is one less thing to worry about for another year.

Our semen tank was getting low so we have had to purchase more, including Solomon, High Octane, Dreamer, Hurricane and Cayle. The criteria that we have been looking for are positive fat and protein percentages.

As I write, we have just received a message that we will have another 0.8p/litre off as of 1 February, so it looks like we will have to find other areas of the business to cut costs.

Brian Yates milks 250 pedigree Holsteins in partnership with his wife Sheila, son Michael and daughter Anna. Surplus heifers are sold for breeding.