108
BY JULIE REED
had another clear TB test and are now officially unrestricted. We’d like to thank both our vets, Farmvets Southwest, and Animal Health who went the extra mile to lift our restriction the same afternoon as passing our test, so that the next day we could sell a load of our beef calves that we had been holding onto.
W
With our calf rearing number back to a sensible number, my job is a lot easier. All I’d like now is a magic cure for the dreaded pneumonia virus and it would be brilliant. It seems no matter how hard you try, if the weather is wet/warm and muggy, like it has been this winter, we still get the odd calf with an unwanted cough. Speaking to other farmers, I know we are not alone in this battle.
Chris is trying to encourage me to let one of our employees take
e had the best early Christmas present, as we
over calf feeding in the afternoons. This is ‘under discussion’, as although it is getting harder for me to venture into our single calf hutches to pull out a new born calf to feed with my increasing bump, I worry that no one is going to look after them quite as well and the job is not as straight forward as he thinks. I’m sure I am not the only calf rearer that feels like this. Anyway, Adam is getting the hang of going in the hutches and pushing the calves out for me.
Farming would be a lot easier if it just involved looking after your animals. Since our business has continued to grow, it has also involved managing more staff, which is a learning curve in itself. Our main night milker recently left and as a result we have made some changes and taken on two foreign workers. This has made a big
difference, as we are getting more man hours for similar money, meaning those jobs we never got round to doing are actually getting done. Chris’ right hand man is still local lad, Josh, who we would be lost without.
Back with the cows and we have just split our milkers into two groups, where fresh calvers and any problem cows now have more cubicles and eating space compared to the main group. Fresh cows stay in the group for one month and heifers for two months, depending on
calving pattern.
Our main reason for this split is with our milking cows stocked at 125% and having reduced our average age at first calving from 25 to 23 months, we found fresh calvers, particularly the heifers, were struggling to compete in our highly stocked herd. This has an extra benefit as Chris can concentrate his attention on milking this new small group and then leave our staff to milk the main group, so he can then use his skills elsewhere. As we are fairly heavily stocked, this should have a positive impact on our milk yield. A recent trip away saw us visiting our friends James and Nicky Hudson in North Wales, where James is the manager of the Genus bull stud. We were lucky to see the new Genus viewing gallery and watch some of the bulls in the moment in action.
As I write this, we are just about to go on a little holiday that I was hoping for a few months back. A skiing holiday, seven months pregnant and a skiing holiday! While Chris and a group of our friends venture off up a mountain, I will be relaxing, trying not to fall over in the snow and wondering when I will see my feet again. I hope spring provides us with the desired sunshine and increase in milk price we are all looking for.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112