We are urgently developing research requirements with other European laboratories to make sure we understand and the disease (Schmallenberg) better.Dominic Naylor: Lack of grass is a cause for concern as the weather becomes a drag
TO quote Brian Bainbridge of Birkdale Farm, Upper Teesdale, in his description of a particularly savage winter in the Sixties, ‘Too long a winter’.
He’d probably say we’d had a fairly mild one down here, but the weather is starting to drag.
All the fields are brown and, with lambing fast approaching, the lack of grass is a cause for concern. Soil temperatures are at a 25-year low at 1.8 degC.
I’ve purchased some feed blocks and made some room in a straw barn to keep ewes and lambs in for a few days but I prefer getting them out on a bit of ‘Dr Green’.
With a week to go before lambing the usual problems have arisen. Five twin-bearing ewes have prolapsed and so I’ve taken the hay out of the ration and made it denser.
There has been an increase in new footrot cases this past month so I’ve increased the use of lime particularly down the feed fronts.
Three-times-a-day milking continues to work well with yields now averaging 31 litres/day, although a bout of winter dysentery swept through the cows for 10 days and knocked five litres off each cow.
One of my night milkers, Chris Dann, is a first year NDA from a non-farming family who hadn’t milked a cow until this year. The dairy industry needs more young people like him.
I wish I hadn’t said how well the pigs were doing last month, as the last lot of snow increased mortality to 40 per cent in two batches of farrowing sows. To avoid consequent cashflow implications in June I’ve decided to sell at heavier weights from now on.
The recent spate of critical comments in the press regarding the 8,100-cow unit proposed in Lincolnshire, demonstrate the ignorance surrounding the reality of milk production in the UK.
Be in no doubt, the facilities at this unit will be state-of-the-art, and the foreign workers who tend the herd will be very dedicated: cow welfare will not be an issue. The real issue is the greed of the supermarkets and the processors.
Animal welfare groups and the like never talk about milk price. The same people are no doubt the ones who delight in four litres of milk for £1. Until this issue is addressed such economies of scale will become more common place.
Straid Moss, the sheepdog pup, is showing real promise, with some nice flanking manoeuvres and a good stop. A couple of phone calls to Tony Iley have given me some training as well.