Farmer Focus: Break-ins and breakdowns test my patience

I forgot to tell you last month that on Christmas night we had a break-in, and 100 heifers were let loose into the surrounding countryside at 3am in the morning.

Well, the same thing happened last weekend, only we now have all the external yard gates padlocked. Even so, the in-calf heifers and store cattle were all mixed up. 

See also: 9 benefits of switching to a zero-grazing system

About the author

Colin Murdoch

Ayrshire farmer and zero grazer Colin Murdoch switched from Holsteins to milking 225 Jerseys in 2019. The 182ha farm grows 40ha of winter and spring barley for a total mixed ration and parlour fed system supplying Graham’s Family Dairy.

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It happened to our neighbours along the road, too. As you’d expect, the police aren’t interested.

I’d been meaning to put cameras up for a while, so I’ve finally done it – literally shutting the gate after the Jersey has bolted.

We’d a great spell of weather for a few weeks, which enabled us to get the first 50 units of nitrogen onto wheat and barley.

I hooked up and tested the fertiliser spreader to make sure it was working before filling it, which it was. I then filled it, drove to the field, pressed go on the control box – and nothing happened.

Now, at 3pm on a Friday, this was far from ideal.

A five-hour round trip to Berwick the following morning for a new control box got us going again, luckily before the nitrogen went solid inside the spreader.

I resisted the temptation to put any fertiliser onto grassland at the same time. However, things are starting to green up, so it won’t be too much longer before we make a start.

With no sheep again this winter, we’ve a lot of grass in some fields. 

Ideally, we’d get round these with the zero grazer this month, before applying slurry. Things rarely pan out that way, but I live in hope. 

As we’ve done for the past few years, grass will be added into the total mixed ration at a low rate for the first few weeks.

We’re about to start calving a block of heifers. I’ve had a few enquiries about selling some in-calf and fresh heifers, but with a lot of the original Danish cows getting a bit long in the tooth, it’s time to be a bit more ruthless about which ones we’re keeping for another lactation.

They certainly have much better longevity than their black and white counterparts – but then I’ve got to say that.