Blog

Claire Eastham farms with her husband Martyn in Dorset, where they milk 120-spring calving cows. After gaining knowledge and experience working for other businesses, the couple started their own dairy farming journey in 2015 by taking on a share farming agreement before progressing to their current county council farm.

Fraser Jones milks 1,500 Holstein Friesians across two sites near Welshpool. As a Disease? Not On My Farm! ambassador, he works closely with his vet Oli Hodgkinson, of Trefaldwyn Vets, to prioritise animal health and welfare. Here he provides a farmer’s perspective on the recently launched National Office of Animal Health Livestock Vaccination Guidelines and considers their potential impact on the dairy sector.

This month Roger Evans discusses the current farming situation at home, this year’s grass growth, milk prices and milk quotas.

As we are now well into the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, there’s one word which gladdens the heart of your average milk vending machine owner: porridge.

Winter housing is rapidly approaching and, despite the lack of any decent frosts yet, each morning is becoming more autumnal, mists hang in the bottom of the valley and gateways are getting a bit ‘clartier’ with every day.

Mid-October and Cheshire is looking reasonably on top of the job. Maize is all but finished, although some crops have been disappointing in terms of yield.

It is our favourite time of year. There has been a farmstead here since the 12th century, with the addition of a cider house in 1696 for payment of cider to farm labourers. We are continuing this tradition.

Our second TB test was read recently with one more reactor found in the herd. The previous inconclusive reactors all passed through successfully. Hopefully this one will also show no legions, meaning no blood test is required as this normally results in more cows been taken off-farm.

Well, harvest 2022 is officially over and it was our biggest harvest to date, with 300 hectares (740 acres) of combinables under our belts.

It has been a long, dry summer here in the Scottish Borders and we still have a couple of fields of grass to mow for second cut silage.