Rodney Down: To sell, or not to sell, that was the question

Many of you will remember the feeling you get when you have just left school, passed your driving test, graduated or, as my neighbour put it, your first kiss.

The feeling is the world is open for you to challenge, nothing is going to get in your way and you are as free as a bird.

Well, that was me in every way on Friday at 8.37am as we put the last cow through the parlour. No, we are not giving up milking but we have finally, after five years, come out of TB restrictions after two clear tests.

Twenty-four hours later, I was the happiest driver in the long queue at Sedgemoor Market with my box full of calves and store cattle.

It was a tough decision now that I had the choice, do I sell or do I keep?

The sums were done and the reserve was made, but thankfully they exceeded our expectations. The £760 per head average for 25-month-old Holstein steers was a pleasing result for an animal out-wintered and in need of ‘pushing’.

What to do with the money? Well, after measuring the grass this week I could do with just a few more cows to eat the now motoring grass.

We have hit a growth rate of 89kg/dm per ha/day and demand is slightly less. The buffer has been reduced to a couple of mouthfuls (not that they were happy about it) and a field extra has been earmarked for silage.

On the arable side, the 40 hectares (100 acres) of AC Barrie wheat is in the ground and within a few days up in rows is now fertilised. The winter wheat has all had T0 and fertiliser and looks remarkably, well considering how dry it has been.

Our daughter Lauren’s new phrase is ‘Daddy plant seeds’ whenever I am leaving the house. Totally correct, as we will be starting the maize campaign this week with a 50/50 split between plough and min till. I think it will be the usual battle on our heavier soils of not losing too much moisture.

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