William and Andrew Cowx: Winter has arrived early so the ewes are already into the silage

December 10, 2010

AFTER 10 days of freezing temperatures and a little snow it was good to have an afternoon indoors to write this month’s article.

Winter has certaintly arrived early but we have so far escaped the heavy snow which has caused problems elsewhere.

We have had the hard frosts – last night (Thursday December 2) the temperature was down to -10degC, resulting in frozen pipes and time spent thawing them out.

We have had a good covering of snow, so are having to feed the ewes big bale silage, of which we have not many, so will have to start and give them silage out of the pit, which we did not want to do until January.

Once again, like last year, we thought tupping had gone well but all the ewes with one tup have returned, which will spread lambing out once again.

I also hope the very cold weather will not affect their fertility. As everyone knows snow is nice if you don’t want to go to school, but it causes a lot of extra work feeding stock and getting around.

We are attempting to halter-train eight pedigree Limousin heifers for the sale just before Christmas, but it is proving almost impossible with the ice and snow, and we desperately need the pens they are in.

As everyone knows snow is nice if you don’t want to go to school, but it causes a lot of extra work feeding stock and getting around

We had a few yearling bulls away recently, they were not very heavy but averaged £1.74per kg. I reckoned them up and the cost of keeping them did not justify keeping them any longer.

I like to see cattle nice and clean when they are inside, but this year they are very dirty – the silage they are getting is second cut and, while it analysed well, it was quite wet. We even had to buy a new scraper to try to catch up with the slurry.

The barn conversion was going ahead quite well until the freeze. We have a long farm road, which always causes problems when snow arrives, so it keeps us busy ferrying builders and materials up from the village.

One thing which does not stop coming is the bills, but we are glad to say we have just got our Single Farm Payment and were pleasantly surprised at the amount. Long may it or its replacement keep coming.

With Christmas and the festive season just around the corner I have just heard on the TV that this hard weather will last into the New Year, so it looks like we are going to be kept busy over the holiday period – why did I decide to be a farmer? There must be easier ways to make a living.

A happy Christmas to you all and a healthy and prosperous New Year.