Hi, I’m Moira, a fourth generation dairy farmer at Clover’s Farm in Pembrokeshire. I farm with my husband Roger and we have been members of Calon Wen for over five years. Roger and I have two children.
June 2009
Having spent a few glorious sunny days carting all the silage bales in from the fields, the rain came as the last load was stacked. How lucky was that?
After much discussion we decided that Tommy the Hereford bull had to go. He had grown too big to serve heifers and was not getting enough work serving the dairy cows, and when we did put a cow with him he found it to much like hard work because he was too fat. We did contemplate putting him in a shed on his own and restricting his feed to slim him down, but we were worried that this might affect his temperament and make him difficult to handle. So he was sold, along with one barren cow and two bad tempered cows.
As part of our Tir Cynnal environmental scheme we have to sow 0.6 hectares of stubble turnips for habitat creation. As this has to be established before the end of June it was time to get the plough out again. The rest of the 3.25 hectare field was to be sown with forage rape and so Roger decided to sow both the crops in at the same time, to try and avoid a repeat of last years forage rape crop failure due to late sowing ( six weeks in August and September too wet to plough and cultivate ) and hence day length too short and temperatures too cold for growth to continue. All the cultivations were carried out in ideal conditions and as Roger was rolling the seed in he was watching a raging thunderstorm about 5 miles away, but only had a few drops of rain fall in the field. As he walked into the house at 11pm having finished the job, the heavens opened. Lucky once again!
At the end of the month we had our next 60 day TB test. This time 3 cows had an inconclusive result. If in 60 days these 3 are inconclusive again, they will be slaughtered and the movement restriction will remain. However if the whole herd reads clear in 60 days, this previous test becomes a clear result and the movement restriction will be lifted. Fingers crossed for a clear result, as by then we will have quite a few calves to sell.
May 2009
At the beginning of the month a livestock valuer visited the farm, along with an Animal Health officer, to value the eight cows to be slaughtered for suspected TB and to provide us with all the necessary paperwork to accompany the animals to slaughter. We supplied the valuer with as much information as possible about the milk yield, health status, and breeding of each animal so that he could give us a fair estimate of their market value, which we will be paid as compensation for the loss of the animals. However this does not compensate us for consequential losses such as lost milk income and future calf sales, as most of these cows would have probably stayed here for at least another 3 or 4 years. One of the cows had to be put down on farm as she was within a week of calving and as such was deemed unfit to travel to an abattoir. In hindsight we wish that we had induced her to calve before she was put down so that we could at least have kept her calf, but everything to do with losing cows to TB is new
to us.
Nine cows calved during the month. Eight had beef calves, including one set of twins and one calf was a dairy heifer. We have kept the beef calves hoping that we will be clear of TB at the next test and that we shall be able to sell them then. It’s a long time since we have kept beef calves for any length of time and it is a lovely sight to look at the bunch all together.
We turned out all the youngstock to grass in the middle of the month. The youngest heifers, who had never been out at grass before, took a while to get used to the electric fencer that was keeping them in the field and they broke out a few times on days when Roger was off the farm, so there was a bit of muttering going on as I had to round them up.
Having watched the nice weather come and go at the beginning of the month, we eventually managed to cut the grass for our first cut silage in beautiful weather at the end of the month. Apart from a few problems with the contractor’s baler, which was on stop for about 4 hours, all went well. Yields were reasonable and we got the last load of bales in as it started to rain.
April 2009
The stubble turnip field was ploughed and rolled at the beginning of the month, and as Roger was so desperate to plough the Forage rape field in the fine weather he was ploughing alongside the cows, doing a bit more each day as the fence was moved. As the cows ate their last few mouthfuls he was turning the last bit of soil over! A week of wet weather stopped us progressing, but finally lime was applied and both the fields were cultivated and seeded with barley and peas, to give us a crop of arable silage, and also a grass/clover seed mix was sown, which will flourish after the arable silage is cut in July.
On the day the lime was being applied, a lorry load of organic hay was also delivered. Both activities disrupted a planned family cycle ride, so the children weren’t too happy. That’s farming.
The water supply to the farm has never been of high pressure, but over recent years greater demands in the dairy for water and increases in stock numbers has meant that the main farmhouse is often without water as it is higher than the farmyard, so the cows water troughs fill first. So we hired a small excavator and dug 500 metres along the farm lane and across two fields to lay a new, larger water pipe. We are currently waiting for the Water Board to come and join it to the water meter and then we’ll see what improvement we have made.
The children were given an Easter treat when 13 bantam chicks hatched down from eggs we had put in the incubator. They were even more thrilled when another 13 hatched from eggs that two broody hens had been sitting on. The hens and their chicks were put into the maternity wing of Cluckingham palace, two individual pens where they can be looked after away from danger.
The sad news of the month is that some of our cows have been diagnosed with bovine TB. Following a whole herd test in February, 20 cows were diagnosed as inconclusive reactors. These 20 were retested in April and 4 cows were classed as reactors and another 4 as inconclusive reactors. All 8 cows will now be slaughtered, a loss of 10% of the milking herd. This result also puts our whole herd under movement restriction, so we can no longer supply our Organic farming friend with the beef calves he needs to buy.
We are extremely disappointed as we have been a closed herd (i.e. don’t buy any stock in) for 10 years. Our boundary hedges are double fenced so our cattle have no nose to nose contact with any neighbouring farms cattle, and we don’t use contractors to spread our slurry, all of which are measures of good biosecurity, but they haven’t been enough.
March 2009
We had some fun at the start of the month trying to get Dottie, the Jersey cross heifer, to pose for a photo. Our daughter wanted to enter an art competition through school for which the theme was “To lead” and she wanted a black and white photo. Having haltered and groomed Dottie she then donned the white coat and tried to get Dottie to stand nicely, whilst Daddy took the photos. I was responsible for positioning the feet and then disappearing quickly out of camera view. Talk about labour intensive, but it kept our daughter happy. Didn’t win any prizes though.
The dry weather at the start of the month meant that we could turn the cows out to grass during the day, whilst at night they had the choice of grazing the stubble turnips or coming in to lie down and feed on silage. Usually half stayed out all night and half came in. It took them 28 days to work their way through the 4 acre field of turnips, which will now be ploughed in preparation for the next crop. The cows have now moved onto the forage rape field, which if you remember was sown late and didn’t grow very much. It never reached more than 5 inches tall and has now started to bolt, so we are taking the milking cows over it at night and the dry cows clear up after them by day. 8 acres will have to disappear in just over a week, ready for Roger to go in with the plough.
We only had one cow calve during the month and unfortunately she gave birth to a dead calf. On top of this she suffered a trapped nerve in her leg and was unable to get up. As she was out in the field we toyed with the idea of bringing her in for warmth, but decided against it as she would have better grip in the field should she try to get up. So we found an old feather duvet and covered her up at night with that, carried food and water to her for 3 days and on day 4 she managed to get up. She was a bit shaky for a few days, so we fitted shackles (ankle bracelets with a chain joining them) to stop her doing the splits. Fortunately she is now fully recovered and back in the herd.
We had our annual Organic Inspection at the end of the month. This includes a full audit of all our record keeping, to ensure we are adhering to the Organic standards. I always find the run up to inspection quite stressful as I am a bit of a worrier and I want everything to be accurate. Fortunately everything was in order, so we can breathe easy for another 12 months.
February 2009
What a start to the month, with the cold and snowy conditions. We had one morning where we had 5 inches of snow and because the children weren’t able to go to school we made snowmen and built high speed sledging ramps with the loader bucket. It only lasted a few hours though and then we had to get back to the reality of moving snow and slurry around the yard. Roger also had a few mornings where, despite careful draining the previous night, the milking parlour pipes were frozen and needed 30 minutes of pouring hot water here and there to thaw them out.
Roger and Dad have a bit of a thing about keeping poultry and Roger has spent quite a few days erecting a rather plush new hen house for Dad’s bantams. In fact it is so luxurious that it has been christened Cluckingham Palace. Hope we get sufficient eggs to justify the expense.
Having let the cow numbers build up over the winter, it was now time to get rid of some cows in preparation for the grazing season. A local organic beef farmer wanted to buy one cow and four beef calves from us, so we chose a nice motherly cow for him. We also had a few cows which were not in calf, so they went, along with a couple of bad tempered cows that Roger didn’t like to let me milk.
The warmer, dry weather towards the end of the month allowed Roger to empty all the slurry pits by spreading it on all the fields which we shall cut for silage this year. At least if the weather turns bad again we have enough space to store slurry if turnout to grazing is delayed.
January 2009
Having recovered from the New Year’s festivities, it was time to get back to normal on the farm.
As the straw bedding in the calf sheds gets deeper, it takes more straw daily to keep the calves clean and dry, so we decided it was time to muck out the old bedding and start again, a job which we do two or three times a year. Two afternoons work gave the calves clean sheds and provided us with the beginnings of the coming year’s fertilizer requirement. We also used the opportunity to wean three calves off milk and to move groups of calves around to maximize the space available to them.
Eight cows calved during the month. Two of these were heifers who have taken to the milking routine very well. One was a bit jumpy to start, but after a couple of days she settled down.
As well as selling beef calves to a local organic farmer, another neighbour, who has gone out of milk production, has asked whether we can provide calves for him to foster onto his now suckler cows as they calve, so that each cow rears two calves. Even low yielding dairy cows produce far too much milk for one calf, so this double suckling is a good system. As long as we can agree on a reasonable price, this system suits both parties, as the buyer knows the calf has come from a healthy herd, whilst we save the bother of having to take calves to market.
One cold Saturday in the middle of the month we carried out our Blue tongue vaccination of the whole herd. We did the calves during the day and then injected the cows in a holding race as they came out of milking. It was a fairly stress free process for the cows, but I was in charge of ticking eartag numbers off as we injected, and my fingers were pretty numb by the end. The whole process needs to be repeated after three weeks, when we give a second injection. This will then provide immunity for up to 12 months against this new midge borne disease which is spreading from mainland Europe.
A local contractor has been on the farm during the frosty weather to do some hedge trimming. Under organic rules we are allowed to cut up to 50% of the hedges on the farm every year, although in reality we only do between 30 and 40%. It is important that the hedges are cut at regular intervals otherwise the gorse and brambles (which form the bulk of our hedging) start to encroach onto the fields. Whilst the contractor is here I also let him “prune” the garden hedges, which is a job I never seem to get round to.
December 2008
We noticed at the beginning of the month that Tommy the Hereford bull had lost the ring in his nose, so we called the vet to come and fit a new one. Easier said than done. It took several attempts to get Tommy to put his head through the yoke where we planned to hold him, and then because his neck is so thick the yoke wouldn’t lock until he lifted his head up. Eventually we managed to secure him with two halters and the job was completed safely.
Nine cows calved during December, which is quite a busy month for us. One cow that calved was Leida’s daughter, who is an Ayrshire cross cow and she had a Meuse Rhine Issel cross heifer calf that we shall keep as a herd replacement. Being so old and thin Leida is not milking very well this lactation, yielding only 16 litres per day, so Roger has increased her feed to help her put some weight on. Her daughter calved on 30th December and is milking better, giving about 30 litres a day. It’s nice to see three generations of a cow family together.
Roger went to collect another load of corn between Christmas and New Year, even though we don’t need it yet. The farmer who we buy it from also sells to other people and he wanted to make sure we had all our requirements met first. As we had relatives staying with us, we picked Roger up after he had loaded the trailer, and went for a picnic and a walk on a beach and then dropped him off again to bring the tractor and corn trailer home.
Roger also took advantage of the spell of dry frosty weather to take some well rotted farmyard manure out to the fields without causing damage to the land with the tractor and spreader. This has provided me with some much needed storage space for the fresh muck which I scrape out of the youngstock and dry cow sheds, three times a week
We managed to arrive on time at the various Christmas concerts, by milking early or late as necessary. Roger even managed to fit in a few rehearsals prior to his surprise performance as a member of ABBA at the end of the school Christmas show. The look of total shock on our children’s faces, as they registered that it was Dad on stage, will stay with me for a long time.
November 2008
I’m a bit late with my update this month as I have had to give priority to the annual making of nativity costumes. This year the children are a shepherd and the angel Gabriel. The shepherd has to wear wellies, which has meant a major scrubbing to remove all traces of cow muck before going into the heat of the village hall, whilst the angel wings are strong enough to fly a plane with (we never do things by halves).
Leida, the granny of the herd has calved at the grand old age of almost 13 years. She had a pure MRI (Meuse Rhine Issel) heifer calf which is as beautiful as her mother, and this is her fourth female calf out of 11 calves in total. Needless to say Leida is being given special treatment and Roger goes to find her every day at lunchtime to give her a little extra feed to keep her going.
After a couple of days of heavy rain the youngstock were eventually housed on November 10th. A few sunny dry days then followed but we didn’t turn them out again. This means we are now on full winter routine of three times a week mucking out and bedding up, so I have to plan the rest of my week round this.
Dottie, the Jersey cross heifer is 18 months old and has just been artificially inseminated with Jersey semen. The process of taking her to the holding pen for the inseminator to do his job was not a simple one. Most cattle will go where you want them to by a bit of arm waving and shooing. Dottie thought she was being let out for a bit of a play and had no intention of being sent anywhere. Eventually Roger put her on a halter and had to lead her across the yard. Made the Inseminator chuckle!
Wishing you all a very Happy Christmas.
October 2008
Having gone through a period of cold and wet weather at the beginning of the month, when we were thinking about bringing all the youngstock in, we have since had a reprieve. The last few days of mild dry weather have allowed us to leave the cattle out, although we have been taking hay and rolled cereals out to them. Grass has been plentiful and we always like to graze the fields short in the Autumn, so that the grass doesn’t suffer too much frost damage over winter.
The bales of silage have been analysed for their nutritional values and we have discussed our winter feed plan for the milking cows with our nutritional advisor. With the protein levels of the silage being lower than last year, we need to increase the protein content of the dairy concentrate that we feed in the milking parlour. This higher protein cake does of course cost more per tonne. However it is important that the cows continue to milk well, that they do not lose weight, and that they get in calf easily, so it should be money well spent.
Having had three heifers calve into the herd this month, we had to get rid of some of the older cows. Fortunately our Organic beef farmer friend needed two cows for suckling calves, so we were able to select two ten year old cows for him. He also bought three calves from us and we had already trained the two cows to suckle these calves, so the system was already set up for him. One of the cows had become so attached to these calves, (even though they weren’t hers) that she tried to chase Roger out of the shed when he went in.
As for the late sown Forage Rape- well it germinated, grew a bit and it is now sitting there one inch tall doing nothing. Watch this space!
September 2008
Having had the cows in at night (and some days) during the first part of the month, the last two weeks of good weather have meant that we have been able to turf them out again and reduce the scraping out routine.
The good weather has also led to a mad rush in doing everything else that has been on hold. We did our third cut silage, this time making round bales instead of square as they store better outdoors. Yields were down on previous years, but at least the ground dried up enough that we didn’t churn up the fields whilst mowing, baling and carting in.
When the tractor wasn’t involved in silage making, Roger was busy ploughing, harrowing and seeding 8 acres with the forage rape seed. This crop is at least 6 weeks late going into the ground and we run the risk of it not germinating, or if it does grow it may be wiped out by slugs. However as this is the start of our reseeding cycle, we had to go ahead, even if the cows don’t get much grazing out of it.
The stubble turnip crop which was being demolished in August by caterpillars has much to our surprise re-sprouted and grown again. The yield is down but at least it will provide ground cover and some nibblings for the cows. I am even managing to find a few turnips to cook with.
Now that farmers have had the weather to be able to combine, we are also able to collect our winter corn and straw requirements from local organic farmers. Roger can collect 7 tonnes of corn or 20 bales of straw on a trip, so by buying locally we are keeping the cows’ food miles down.
Whilst enjoying a cup of tea at a local café last week, mum and dad got chatting to a family from Northampton who were holidaying in the area. This family were delighted when dad told them we were organic dairy farmers supplying Calon Wen. They said it was the brand of milk they bought and that they loved Rachel’s yoghurts. It’s so nice to meet the consumer face to face.
August 2008
What a month! Non stop rain has really messed up our plans to carry out certain jobs over the last few weeks.
We still haven’t managed to plough the fields into which we intend to sow forage rape for winter grazing. When we have had a few dry days between the rain, the land has been too wet to drive on. If the seed doesn’t go in soon we will be struggling to get the rape established and to grow sufficiently before the cows should be grazing the crop. On top of this, there is a pest called the sawfly larvae which is destroying all the brassica crops in Pembrokeshire. Thousands of black caterpillars are stripping the leaves off the plants and have already wiped out the whole field of stubble turnips we were growing for habitat and grazing. At least they provided some late summer nutrition for the swallows, but it means the cows will have to go without.
We have finished the corn which we feed to the milking cows. In a normal year we would have been able to purchase some of this years corn straight away and carry on feeding. However everyone is struggling to find a dry spell in which to combine, and so we have had two weeks where we are only able to feed expensive concentrate feed. The cows have also been given the choice to come into the cubicle shed to lie down on wet nights. This has meant scrapping out muck from the shed and bedding up the cubicles during the day. Not a job we expect to be doing in August.
We have had the usual run of family and friends visiting us over the month. The most we had staying at any one time was nine, so some careful planning, cooking and pre freezing of meals was necessary, so that I could do my farm jobs and get everyone fed at a reasonable time.
With the children going back to school it’s time to catch up with the paperwork that has been put to one side for a few weeks. So it’s back to the office for me.
July 2008
Having listened to the forecast predicting rain and then having 4 days of sunshine, Roger got fed up of waiting to cut the grass for second cut silage. So with fingers crossed he cut all 65 acres and 36 hours later it was all baled and wrapped without a drop of rain landing on it. Yields were down this year compared to last, partly due to colder growing conditions and partly due to the slurry tanker having a major breakdown after first cut silage. This meant that some of the fields did not get an application of slurry which contains essential nutrients, which resulted in poorer grass growth, the difference being between 3.5 and 5 bales per hectare. Having had the slurry tanker repaired, Roger went at the task of applying slurry after second cut with a vengeance, so hopefully we will be able to recuperate some of the lost yields at third cut. We need to make around 1000 bales of silage per year to ensure sufficient feed for the cows over the winter.
One of the contractors who came to do the silage casually asked whether we had any calves to sell. We happened to have three and so he bought them all, which saved us the job of having to take them to market and we got a fair price for them without having to pay auctioneers commission.
The stubble turnips we planted last month are growing well. We now have a further 3.5 hectares (8 acres) to plough and seed with forage rape to provide winter grazing.
Now that the children are on school holidays I am keeping them busy doing little jobs on the farm. They are both good with a paint brush and so far have painted walls inside and outside the dairy and are working their way through the currently empty calf rearing shed. I said I would pay them £10 each if they could complete the job. Roger tells me it’s slave labour. I say it keeps them busy even if there are the odd few smiley faces being painted on the back of overalls.
We managed to get a few days break after silaging. We went to visit family in Berkshire and took the children to London to see the sights and watch a musical. An enjoyable few days but city life is not for us and it was so nice to come home.
June 2008
Having had a good start, the reseeded fields have been struggling ever since. The cold wind has really affected growth and the field by the house is looking a bit sick. We tested the soil in this field last year and the soil indices for Phosphate and Potash were ok at 2. Following the poor growth to date, we have now tested the soil again and P and K indices have fallen to 1. Phosphate especially is essential for establishment and growth of a new ley, but anything we do to correct the deficiency now will be too late for the current reseed.
Roger is busy on running repairs. Mending doors, fixing guttering, replacing manhole covers. So the other day he asked whether I could plough a field for him as he wanted to get on with other things. Now I haven’t done much ploughing since college days, so I was a bit apprehensive, but I gave it a go. This particular field had not been ploughed for 40 years and Dad was telling me that on the day he last ploughed it my Mother and my Grandfather took 6 pigs and 4 calves to the local livestock market. How’s that for a good memory. I wouldn’t win any ploughing matches for my attempt, but I managed to bury all the grass and I didn’t break the plough. The field has been rolled and is waiting for lime to be applied before sowing with stubble turnips to create a habitat area for an environmental scheme called Tir Cynnal (maintained land). The field will then be grazed by the cows over the winter.
The majority of the cows in our herd are dairy or dual purpose breeds, but we do have one cow which is a Belgian blue x Friesian, typically a beef animal. She has milked very well, had no fertility, mastitis or lameness problems and is extremely docile to handle. We have been so pleased with her that when a large heifer calf of the same breeding was born earlier this month, we decided to keep her to see if we can repeat the success.
May 2008
Due to the heavy rain at the end of April, it took over two weeks for Roger to get onto the ploughed fields to sow the barley, peas and grass seed. However, when it was sown, the ground had warmed up sufficiently to allow rapid germination of the seed and seedlings were visible within a week. This then presented another problem – crows and pigeons. They love to feed on the seed and will gather in large numbers to snack on what is expensive organic seed. I usually have to go off on my bike a few times a day on bird scaring duty, but with the fields being next to the house this year I have been able to send the children out to be scarecrows. Whistling sound tubes are effective scarers as are Grade 3 violin pieces!
We had an on the spot Dairy Hygiene Inspection at the beginning of May. This entails an inspector looking at the cleanliness of the milking parlour and milk storage room, the effectiveness and cleanliness of the milking routine, milk quality results and general health and welfare of the cows. Fortunately everything was ok.
One such job is first cut silage. From the end of the first week in May we walk round the silage fields and assess the quantity and stage of growth of the grass. Then we watch the weather forecast like hawks. When there is a run of 3-4 days of dry weather we cut. Only 30 acres of the silage fields were ready last week, so we baled and wrapped that. Yields were down a bit on last year, but then we have cut two weeks earlier. The rest of the silage will be cut this week, provided the contractors can come when we want.
We have had 5 heifers calve in the last month. As they have not been into the milking parlour before, Roger is never sure how they are going to react to having a milking machine attached to their teats. Some are quite happy to stand quietly as long as they have got food to eat, whilst others can lash out backwards and you have to stand back and hope they miss you and calm down eventually. Usually it’s the heifers that have been a bit flighty at first that turn into nice docile cows, whilst it’s the quiet ones you have to watch! In order to keep the herd size the same we have had to cull 5 cows. It is always sad to see the old cows go, but at least we know they have had a really good life.