Farmer Focus: Hoping for high-quality feed amid baking weather
© Tim Scrivener It’s all go here at the moment. We have just managed to get our haylage baled and stacked in the yard.
All being well, we won’t be needing it until the ewes come in for lambing next year, but I have a feeling we may need some of it for keeping the ewes going over summer, like last year.
Unfortunately, it had dried out a little bit more than we would have liked due to baler issues, but hopefully will still be a high-quality feed for the ewes.
See also: Beef genetics auction raises £27k for Ukraine
About the author
We will get samples sent off at the end of the year so we can work out what additional feed the indoor lambing ewes will need.
Like many farms, we saw our fields starting to bake by mid-June and we seemed to miss most of the thunderstorms. With this in mind, we decided to wean the first batch of lambs, which are 13 weeks old.
They are now having to compete with ewes for the best grass and we have already had two draws from the group for lambs to go through the butchery.
Average weight was 33kg, which is slightly up from last year, so we are heading in the right direction.
These lambs have already got used to electric fencing and rotational grazing, which makes life easier than trying to train them after weaning.
The plan is that after the ewes have dried up, they will follow the outdoor lambing flock’s rotation, cleaning up the longer grass that has been left behind.
This was the plan for last summer, however, the lack of rain meant the ewes went into sacrifice fields and were fed on haylage. Let’s hope we don’t have to do that again.
We keep monitoring the worm burdens by doing regular faecal egg count tests, although the warm, dry weather seems to be keeping the worms at bay. Next big jobs are getting the two flocks sheared.
Hoggs and tups are already done and are looking in top condition. Also, we are now in full swing with our catering at county shows and events, so the butchery is flat-out preparing for those.
We also have our fourth “pop-up shop” on 1 July; they have really taken off. Fingers crossed for enough rain.