Preparing for winter on the farm

On Manor, Stowell and Chuggaton Farms everyone is busy. Here and on Chuggaton Farm calving continues, so keeping a regular eye on cows due to calve, as well as ensuring those that have recently given birth are well, is an essential duty. There are also newly born calves to feed with a warm drink of milk every morning and evening, at the same time checking that all is well.

On Manor Farm Ian is checking the dry cows that are close to calving. He takes a close look at them about every four hours, throughout the day and night, just in case any of them may need some help when they give birth. During the week there was one very difficult calving requiring the attention of two vets. I am pleased to say that although we lost the calf the heifer is fine. Early one morning (5am) mid-week, Ian phoned Richard for some help to calve another heifer. On this occasion the birth was breech, although the calf was born alive it had to be euthanased later that day. It is however not all gloom and doom here on Manor Farm, with the safe arrival of the majority of our calves.

On Stowell Farm some breeding ewe lambs and cull ewes have been sold, but the focus has been harvest. The damp mornings have meant the combine could not be started up til later in the day, but Kevin has managed to finish harvesting all the wheat and oats and is now gathering the spring barley crop. Kevin has also planted all his oilseed rape, likewise on Manor Farm, two fields of rape have been sown.

The period that hedge cutting is now allowed started on September 1, so here Richard began by trimming hedges in fields due to be planted. Cultivating fields which will be planted with winter wheat and winter barley continues, as does muck spreading. Operations were halted for three days during the week, when Richard suddenly found he had no steering on the tractor he was using. An engineer was called to determine what had caused the failure. The steering pump was found to be broken, so a new one was ordered and installed. The new pump broke immediately, so for a while the engineer was baffled. What had happened was that when the original pump broke the pieces travelled further into the system, made possible by the fact that the steering pump is located after the oil filter. I am pleased to say that the tractor can now be steered, so the new cultivator can be put to use again.

We have now planted two fields with a permanent grass, following wheat. The mixture of seeds used consisted of five varieties of perennial ryegrass, three of white clover and one red clover. These ryegrasses have high fibre digestibility, which is the single most important quality. This will result in higher animal intake of forage, giving higher meat and milk production. The varieties chosen must also yield well, be good quality and palatable. The clovers are chosen for high yields, good ground cover, good growth throughout the season and being able to withstand hard defoliation.

Something we have all noticed this year is an increase in the amount of hemlock. A few scattered plants have become obvious in recent years, but this year they seem to have flourished. Most of the plants, which are poisonous, have been found growing on the edges of fields, but they have now spread much further. Poison hemlock is a five to eight feet tall perennial herbaceous plant, with a mousey smell and clusters of white flowers, which belongs to the carrot family. Apart from the smell, the plant can be recognised by the purple/red spots on the stems. Hemlock contains poisonous alkaloids which disrupt the working of the central nervous system in both animals and humans, leading to death.