Farmer Focus: Soon be time for lambing

Why is it every year the time seems to fly by? Before you know it we will have scanned the ewes and be preparing for lambing. It only seems a short time ago since the glorious spring of last year, let’s hope we get the same again.

See also: Read more from our other livestock farmer focus writers 

All ewes are now grazing stubble turnips, and I’m pleased to say we’re now on top of our lameness problem through a mixture of vaccinating the whole flock with footvax and antibiotics for anything needing treatment. The policy now is to cull repeat offenders. We have also just housed a group of 80 cows that were living off deferred grazing and great Shropshire views.

I recently attended the Cattle Breeders Conference in Telford. All the speakers were of high quality, but one particular person stood out and got me thinking, which is quite dangerous! Tom Gubbins, an Australian from Te Mania Angus who  farms 1,800 cows, uses EBVs to the maximum. As well as the usual birth weights and growth rates, he records hoof scores, teat scores and even the bull’s sheath angle!

Despite attention to detail, the overall message was to make every decision for genetic and economic reasons. I was lucky enough to host Tom, along with the rest of Eblex’s progressive beef group, for a couple of days. As you can imagine, a great deal of the world’s beef problems were resolved over these two days, but the refreshing thing was for everyone in the group to be challenged.

Why do we house our cattle? Why are there so many beef breeds? Is there any point in showing beef cattle? All these observations Tom had picked up from his time in the UK.

Of course we argued the need for housing, as our farms are too wet and they would cause too much damage, but in true antipodean style his reply was find a drier farm, or find someone with a dry farm to winter them on.

On the subject of different breeds, everyone seemed to have their own reasons for keeping what they do, but the showing question proved to have little opposition.

As the host farmer it’s always great to have positive feedback, but actually the only way you can improve is to listen to some negative observations. I was a little disappointed not to hear any, as there are plenty, but I think my mother-in-law made such good cakes they all felt too guilty to say anything.

James Evans farms 300 Stabiliser suckler cows and 1,110 Llen cross ewes across two units, totalling 825ha, in Shropshire. He was 2012 Farmers Weekly Beef Farmer of the Year