Wet weather hampers silaging for Andrew Burleigh
The month of June here in Fermanagh was eagerly awaited – we had the crucial vote on the Balmoral Show move and I am delighted there was a resounding yes for the move to Balmoral Park. On the down side, we have quite a few neighbours that still have no first-cut silage.
The World Charolais Congress farm walk at Stuart and David Bothwell’s farm was a great success, with about 350 in attendance. We had the pleasure of meeting and chatting to fellow breeders from all around the world. And that night at the congress dinner we had plenty of good food, dancing, wine and craic – a night to remember.
With the weather the way it is, barbecue meats are slow in the shop, but meats for hot dinners are selling well. We purchased a Mustang skid steer loader for the farm last week. It has already proved very useful for cleaning out calving pens and loading manure for spreading – I am wondering what we did without it. Our Case 5140 started to pump diesel into the engine oil, so we got the diesel pump reconditioned. This cost £270 and £100 in labour costs. The second cut is coming on well despite all the bad weather and we will target to cut it the first week in August. Alan had a good couple of days at the East of England Show and is now breaking four young calves for the Clogher and Enniskillen shows. There are still large shows of cattle coming forward to the marts, with prices keeping very strong for this time of year.
Andrew Burleigh farms a mixed farm and runs a traditional butchers shop in south-west Fermanagh with his wife, Rosalind, and sons Alan and Lee. The home farm is run by his brother and nephew, and is home to a Beltex pedigree flock along side a commercial flock, suckler cows, stores and beef cattle.