LATEST ARTICLES
Viewpoints
Home Farm: the hardiness of our dairy beef cattle
Matt Dempsey
I explained the symptoms, to be told that there was a vet in the area and within half an hour, he was in the field.
18 September 2024 Viewpoints
Home Farm: weather panics from last year
Last year's difficulties with weather delaying harvesting and sowing has over-influenced our decision-making this year in rushing us to harvest.
11 September 2024 Viewpoints
Home Farm: some cattle in, mole ploughing in tillage
We have ended up housing the most forward cattle and will probably aim to finish them for the pre-Christmas market.
Home Farm: Will we have to house cattle this week?
I would expect to have the silage aftergrass growing vigorously at this stage, so that we could spread the cattle out across the place, but it’s too soon to let stock out on it yet.
4 September 2024 Viewpoints
Home Farm: a tale of two enterprises
Never have we sown oilseed rape so early, but the expensive lesson of late sowing, followed by a wet autumn, has left a mark.
28 August 2024 Viewpoints
Home Farm: Catching up over the weekend
We may also have to accept that we may run out of weather in the autumn and simply be prepared to leave some land until the land dries out in spring.
21 August 2024 Viewpoints
Home Farm: August - a critical month
We have learned a bitter lesson this year, when the crops of oilseed rape went in too late and got much too much rain for the young plants to deal with.
7 August 2024 Viewpoints
Home Farm: Weather balancing act
One crop had large areas submerged for too long during the prolonged wet autumn and winter despite the field normally being dry.
31 July 2024 Viewpoints
Home Farm: hay baled after dry days
We have now fully replenished our hay stocks, and hopefully a reasonable second cut of silage will bring us up to meet our target supplies of winter feed.
24 July 2024 Viewpoints
Home Farm: beef weakens and first steps for harvest
Hopefully the bulk of the winter barley will meet the specifications without any pre-harvest treatment.
10 July 2024 Viewpoints
Home Farm: variable crops, light silage
We have negotiated as hard as we can with our factory customers, but there is only so far they are willing to go.
3 July 2024 Viewpoints
Home Farm: first cut silage now complete
We delayed cutting to let the dock spray work fully over the three week recommended period between spraying and cutting.
12 June 2024 Viewpoints