Livestock Farmer Focus FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Hosepipe and fan rigged up to cool cowsWe finished drilling maize on 23 May, followed almost immediately by an inch of rain. The crop emerged within four days and has established really well. Second-cut silage was delayed… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Cows drinking 100 litres/day to combat heatSilage was again done in glorious weather – this was second cut done in four days, roughly 138ha (340 acres). There were no breakdowns, staff performed well and 1,400 bales… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Milk yields up but hot spells hit fertilityWith a week of good weather finally forecast, we’ve knocked down 12ha (30 acres) of mature grass to bale as hay for dry cows. We seem to spend all summer… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Night-time shenanigans to get second cut inIt was great to see Lewis Hamilton recently winning his first race for Ferrari. Unfortunately, I had to listen to it on the radio as I was cutting our second… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Piglet vaccine tech saves time and stressKeeping pigs on three different sites often spreads the workload well, with the pigs all being at different stages. However, sometimes it can be very full on all at once.… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Maize crop is motoring after a slow startOur June was extremely busy. The old adage that things will be easier next week never seems to happen. At the beginning of the month, I was worried about the… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Lamb price only fair considering long hoursThe 31 lambs we took to Welshpool Market on 1 June looked small and young. Nevertheless, they averaged 34.2kg, with an average price of £161.94. Two weeks later, we took… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Stock are thriving on high-quality grassJune was quite a month. We have had scorching temperatures, lashing rain, hailstones, thunder, lightning and a whole lot of grass growth. It has been a month of extremes that… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Rig lamb foils plan to tighten lambing periodWe’ve finished making our haylage and conditions couldn’t have been much better. It looks like it will be good-quality stuff, though we’ll get it tested before we start feeding it… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: June rain limits silage-making options in NIIt has definitely been a few years since I’ve seen this much rainfall in June – 100mm-plus in four weeks. It has limited the options for silage harvesting for most… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Gravity-fed water boosts grazing block supplyAs we see yet another prime minister quit their post, and with change at the helm of Defra, can it get any worse? I suspect it will, as we appear… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Strong grass growth prompts early ewe purchaseI am writing this sat by the pool in Sardinia, and what a lovely place it is. June has always been the time for a family holiday for us, and… More articles
