As the month of June marches on, the unpredictability of this spring's grass growth has been replaced with the fair certainty that nothing is growing at all.
That said, maize sown back in early May is racing away. I suspect the roots are safely in a moist zone which is fine whilst the plant is moderate in size.
Weed control of pre-emergence worked well this year as the crop was sown and sprayed in the dry when a subsequent wet week looked likely, so no post emergence was required. Fertiliser at 70 units of Nitrogen per acre and all the P and K required were supplied by the farm's slurry stores so the crop represents good value for money if it continues to grow at this rate.
As I type, I remember last summer's dry weather and what appears now to be similar thus far. It makes me wonder if the notion of winter grass is something we ought to start to look at. Locally, crops of Westerwolds ryegrass after maize certainly look impressive, although I would need to brush up on herbicide mixes and ask the question is whether there is time to bring glycophosphate into the mix?
Fortune smiled upon us last month with a clear TB test. Quite possibly less down to fortune and more down to lots of effort by some hard-working people helping us with managing feeding and wildlife control for which we are extremely grateful. To paraphrase the old saying'"the harder we work, the luckier we become'.
Our goal for the herd is to breed a 'Grazing Holstein', by carefully choosing service sires to add positivity to the herd. One reason why we have not followed the rate of cross breeding is from time to time during the summer as rainfall becomes less reliable, supplementary feeding is becoming more commonplace. The natural ability of the Holstein to convert this type of feeding into milk, especially the fresh calved cows, makes me think Holsteins are the right choice for us.
Another reason for sticking to the breed and trying to develop our ideal cow is the reliability of UK proofs which align nicely with our UK milk contracts. Studying some foreign proofs suggested to me their origin countries' milk contracts have different penalties or bonuses which were clearly relating to their own countries' requirements which are not necessarily the same as those in the UK.
Looking across the grazing fields, my hopes for rain seem to get dashed each time I look and see the forecast changing from potential rain to another bright sunshine symbol. I am beginning to wonder if some forecasts may be arrived at by use of fir cones or tea leaves. Hopefully we will see some rain soon. I was recently reminded of a quotation from Warren Buffet, the billionaire investor: "Predicting rain doesn't count, building the ark does."
I may just go and check how well stocked the workshop is.
