The farming and smallholding thread

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Farmers sentenced over animal cruelty in Staffordshire

Cows were kept in unsuitable pens with little food or water, Staffordshire County Council says.

www.bbc.com

Crikey - £40k fine for breaching cattle movement & ID regs!

That's serious. That's about 200 000 litres of milk, or 25 cows worth. He's going to be feeding, bedding, vaccinating, btb testing, foot trimming and milking 25 cows for a year for nothing.

 

[Archibald]

Just seen a field of these today

 

[Gabion Groyne]

Just seen a field of these today


View attachment 779114

Quite a bit early surely?

 

[76mill]

Protected minorities - if you please !

It might sound hard to believe but the Met from Croydon nick went into don't f*ck with us mode and took no prisoners when "moving on" some caravan dwellers from a former car dealers site on the Brighton Road last week.
Going into Huggy Bear mode, word on the street is there's a new uniform inspector in town who has hand picked some serious street monsters who don't take no for an answer, long overdue by all accounts.

 

[Humble Tiller]

Things have been ticking over quietly on the farm as we go further into autumn.
In the past we have had no end of problems at calving with weak calves and disinterested mothers. Suspecting a lack of iodine, we dosed all the cows with high iodine boluses.

We don't worm our stock as a matter of course. Instead we send of poo samples for a faecal egg count to be done. This way, we only give anthelmintics when they are needed. It saves money, stress and time, and helps to stop the build up of wormer-resistant worms, in the same way that doctors are reluctant to issue antibiotics. Everything was clear.

The winter wheat has been drilled, finishing at 0030 today, we've got ten days grace to roll it before it chits. More important is to get the slug pellets on, but we need the rain to stop first. The OSR has lived up to expectations with a 60% failure. Not a surprise, but very disappointing as it had everything thrown at it.
We sent another steer to the abattoir last week, the first time we have sent three inside a twelvemonth. His carcass weight was 419kg, all from grass, although it must be said it took 41 months to get him there.
The pigs went as well. Four Oxford Sandy and Black, and two Wessex Saddlebacks, six months they have been here in the wood, fossicking about, and occasionally escaping.

In August I bought eight Shorthorn x dairy steers, 15 months old. They were a bit light when they came off the wagon, but have started to fill out nicely. I think we'll have to feed them over the winter, but they should make lovely cattle in a couple of years.

 

[Archibald]

Quite a bit early surely?

There is this flock that the farmer has which lambs at this time of year I have seen them over the years

He did tell me once when I saw him out one day. Its the breed I think some kind of south downs maybe Sussex ? also they have the lamb to market earlier than the norm so ahead of the Easter in shops


Archie

 

[Humble Tiller]

We had our annual ACCS inspection this week, and thankfully passed with no misdemeanours. This is the Assured Combinable Crops Scheme, the arable arm of the Red Tractor organisation. By passing, it shows that we comply with the RT rules, and thus our crops can be used by millers and malsters who use the RT logo on their packaging. Without it, selling milling wheat or malting barley would be nigh on impossible.
It can be a massive PITA, but it does mean total traceability in production, and we can't boast about how British agriculture is the most tightly regulated and ergo the best unless there is this beurocratic oversight.

The wet weather has been slightly less than helpful. The wheat is getting a lot of grief from slugs, but while the rain continues we can't put any slug pellets down. The cattle are variously being moved out of paddocks and onto downland, and some (the Shorthorn x dairy crosses) will have to come in. The rams will be put in with the ewes next week, the venerable Geoffrey and the young pretender Neville, (proper name Nemesis the something something, but re-chrisrened by sensible children).

 

[Ravers]

Tough day at the office.

 

[Ned_Seagoon]

Tough day at the office.View attachment 782367View attachment 782368View attachment 782369

Was that perchance your Landy flying a battleflag at the Wasdale show on last weeks episode on “A year in the (?mountains)” ? Probably 21 or 22.

 

[Ravers]

Was that perchance your Landy flying a battleflag at the Wasdale show on last weeks episode on “A year in the (?mountains)” ? Probably 21 or 22.

Nah not me.

That’s t’other side of the county.

 

[Humble Tiller]

We put the rams in with the ewes on Sunday, so hopefully it will be "In with a Bang, Out with a Fool", as the gestation time exactly corresponds to 5th November- 1st April. The gateway out of the rams field was like an ice rink, and of course I got the trailer stuck, confirming my opinion of doing things like this on a Sunday morning.

On Monday I went to a workshop presented by Catchment Sensitive Farming, who @HectortheInspector may be aware of. It was very interesting, and plenty of free advice is on offer to reduce soil runoff, nutrient leeching, improving soil health, free soil testing and so on.
In light of the above it is a touch that we don't need to apply any more slug pellets, as the wheat is well established now, and the initial application seems to have done the trick. Incidentally, the pellets we use are deemed suitable for organic farming. A near neighbour is however suffering terribly with slug damage in wheat that was direct drilled after OSR.

"If you go down to the woods today........"

 

[HectortheInspector]

View attachment 783143
We put the rams in with the ewes on Sunday, so hopefully it will be "In with a Bang, Out with a Fool", as the gestation time exactly corresponds to 5th November- 1st April. The gateway out of the rams field was like an ice rink, and of course I got the trailer stuck, confirming my opinion of doing things like this on a Sunday morning.
View attachment 783144
On Monday I went to a workshop presented by Catchment Sensitive Farming, who @HectortheInspector may be aware of. It was very interesting, and plenty of free advice is on offer to reduce soil runoff, nutrient leeching, improving soil health, free soil testing and so on.
In light of the above it is a touch that we don't need to apply any more slug pellets, as the wheat is well established now, and the initial application seems to have done the trick. Incidentally, the pellets we use are deemed suitable for organic farming. A near neighbour is however suffering terribly with slug damage in wheat that was direct drilled after OSR.
View attachment 783152
"If you go down to the woods today........"

Aware of, yes.
I worked on it a few years ago.
It's a very good programme, but not many people seem to be aware of it.

 

[HectortheInspector]

Re Catchment Sensitive Farming, it has an attached Grant scheme for capital improvements.

Applicant's guide: Capital Grants 2023

www.gov.uk

 

[Humble Tiller]

Aware of, yes.
I worked on it a few years ago.
It's a very good programme, but not many people seem to be aware of it.

It does indeed look like a good scheme, and I'll admit i hadn't heard of it before . This is no reflection on CSF, but there are so many acronyms and quangos calling for attention (DEFRA, Natural England, EA, RPA, ELMS, SFI, Red Tractor and so on) that some things get lost in all the noise.
That being said, I would like to involve CSF here.

 

[HectortheInspector]

It does indeed look like a good scheme, and I'll admit i hadn't heard of it before . This is no reflection on CSF, but there are so many acronyms and quangos calling for attention (DEFRA, Natural England, EA, RPA, ELMS, SFI, Red Tractor and so on) that some things get lost in all the noise.
That being said, I would like to involve CSF here.

It's been a while since I worked on it, but a lot of it is money saving. Actually having some grant money attached is also nice.

If you don't need to fertilise a field, then you don't need to buy fertiliser for it. That's a cost saving. You need to test the soil to see what it needs, not what gets put on it by habit.

Small changes in working practices. A fence repaired, or gateway moved a few yards.

A lot of it is low impact, but it has implications further down the line. If farm pollution doesn't get into the lakes and rivers, it doesn't need to be taken out by the water companies.