We are urgently developing research requirements with other European laboratories to make sure we understand and the disease (Schmallenberg) better.Dominic Naylor: Time out at the Dairy Event after all is safely gathered in
I WENT to the Dairy Event last week. After a three-year absence, I pondered whether my decision to go was because I instinctively feel more positive about the future of dairying, or rather it was driven by a fear I might miss the latest innovation to make dairying profitable again!
East Yorkshire
Dominic is farm manager at Bishop Burton College, near Beverly. The 400ha (1,000 acre) mixed farm on the edge of the Wolds comprises 280ha (700 acres) owned and 120ha (300 acres) rented. Run as a commercial enterprise, it has dairy, pigs, sheep and arable.
When I arrived, I was greeted by a sign which read HSBC - principle sponsor. I wonder if May’s milk cheque paid for the sponsorship? There were a lot of suits everywhere. Had the family farmer really demised and from the ashes suited agri-businessmen emerged, with their large herds and foreign labour?
No, the dairymen were doing the two things they like to do at these events. Firstly, admiring the fantastic breeding in the
‘exhibitor bred’ inter-breed final. I didn’t think Blaise Tomlinson’s Ayrshire could be beaten until I saw Heler farm’s Talent daughter. Where was John Craven when the Holstein scored 100 per cent from the judges, a testimony to this fantastic breed? I probably would have put the Shorthorn first, or rather its’ handler!
I think we all want someone to tell us it’s going to be alright
Dominic Naylor
Secondly, farmers were standing around FG’s excellent stand, listening to a debate on the future of dairying. I think we all desperately want someone to tell us it’s going to be alright. Despite NVZs, disease cost ‘sharing’, and milk pricing which thinks the current fall in cereal prices means we could stand a further price drop, there is a future. Potter spoke well and I hope my fellow dairy farmers went away feeling positive.
At home all is safely gathered in, including third cut silage. I clamped lucerne again rather than bales but this time the only additive was four days of sun. Unlike ryegrass each subsequent cut is as high in quality as the last.
About 16ha (40 acres) of ryegrass has been burnt off and slurry spread before drilling wheat. The rape is drilled and starting to emerge and the ritual battle with slugs, pigeons and rabbits has begun. All that remains is the maize harvest.
Although the proof will be in the feeding, for me to harvest high starch maize by mid-September justifies the expenditure on the plastic. Even the stunted plants have decent sized cobs.
The recent sunny weather means I can sit back and watch the maize improve without compromising the following wheat crop. Although I won’t be sitting back for long, as I’m desperate to get the maize back in the ration, lift yields and condition scores.