I am writing this on April 25 while sitting on a plane heading to Birmingham for a board meeting with ACT.
It has been a time of mixed wonderings while trying to juggle the never-ending list of spring jobs.
Deliberation over when to spread fertiliser and spray winter crops due to water sitting in ever deepening tramlines.
Will we try and sow or is it still ‘raw kind?’ Is the grass park dry enough to carry the muck spreader? Will we go and plough or should we go and gather stones? Fit price should I push onto when buying yearling heifers this season? Lamb prices have bounced back and we only have 80 left – stick or twist? Soya has come back approximately £100 per tonne and the sna is on again, so which tractor did I leave my tammy in!
We have been sowing our spring beans (Fuego) and knocked out a fair bit of the spring barley acres with only 150 acres to go. Variety-wise we are going all Diablo ourselves as it yielded well with grain and straw last year.
We run a Claas 800 tractor with a 4 metre folding Lemkin grain and fertiliser drill which we think is a fantastic set, well balanced in both weight and power distribution.
With our fields being so spread out the folding aspect is a must.
That said, close attention must be paid to ensure all pipes are still attached to the coulters after folding out as it has been known for some missed stripes to appear in a field which some ‘roadside fermers’ like to highlight as ‘choket spoots’ loathe to admit they hadn’t noticed that a pipe has managed to detach itself!
A couple of years ago we were successful in gaining grant funding for VF 800mm tyres and an S10 Autosteer system for our sowing tractor.
This revolutionised the operator’s job (me) allowing multi-tasking on the hands-free phone to be much easier.
The setting of the power harrow with the wide tyres is far simpler than having to try and pull out wheel marks which in turn makes it a lot easier to pull. Looking at diesel usage we reckon we save 15% with the big tyres.
Livestock-wise we are now fully stocked with this year’s heifers – 205 yearlings and 50 19-month olds going to the grass which is slowly starting to wave in the wind.
Hens have been consistent of late with one 12,000 and one 16,000 bird houses reaching peak lay over the past few weeks which is a critical time for controlling ‘non-nest’ eggs and assisting the training of the birds with light manipulation.
This must be given priority as if not done correctly we have a long, labour-greedy 14 months ahead of us fighting to control these system and floor eggs. I must commend our poultry team in this, being very attentive and proven experts in this field.
The egg market remains tight, raising confidence in the job and has seen us depopulate a 32,000 enriched colony unit and restock again early May for another cycle.
With only 80 lambs left on farm of which 60 are already booked to go and grass rents secured once again it was time to put the feelers out for replacements for the coming season.
An opportunity presented itself in the form of an entire flock of 560 ewes with lambs at foot on which we have now struck a deal.
The work of rounding them up, tagging, worming and vaccination is to be undertaken by ourselves – all pretty standard tasks? The main issue is, however, they are currently 200 miles away.
Our enthusiastic team are looking forward to bringing them home as a challenge/road trip/’bit o’crack’ so fingers crossed we don’t end up with egg on our faces.
The mannie is shouting over the tannoid to stow away my table, ensure my seat is in the upright position and my window blind is open so I better dee fit I am telt and hope this bit o paper makes it to the publisher on time!
