Hi Chris here.
Summer has finally arrived! Grass is growing well and we have made another cut of silage which has filled all the clamps up. It's great to have some good stocks of forage for the winter. We have also made some hay, most of it will be used for bale grazing over winter. I was beginning to think that I wouldn’t get a good weather window to make the hay but the weather came good and we’ve made some great hay.
We just have to hope the local arable farmers have a good timely harvest so we get our straw for bedding over winter. Straw prices look like they will be high this year because of the wet autumn and spring conditions it proved difficult for them to get all of their wheat and barley sowed. So, there will be less straw available as a result.
The next job we have started doing in the fields is sub soiling. This is a three-legged implement that goes into the soil to break up compaction. I’ve been digging some test holes in different fields around the farm which shows alot of the soils are tight and compacted. This means the plant roots will have to work harder to find nutrients and moisture, which will impact plant health and growth. The compaction is a result of the challenging wet conditions we have faced in the spring and autumn. Sub soiling is a slow job, so we will target the most effected fields.
All the summer calving cows have calved now and are milking well. So its just a case of milking and managing the grazing on the cow front. It’s important to try and build a surplus of grass a head of the cows going into the autumn so we don’t run out of grass when the growth slows down.
So, I continue to measure the grass growth each week and will buffer feed with some silage if needed to fill any deficits we might have.
In vending machine news, we now have this year’s honey harvest in the shed, along with black pudding pork pies. Which I can’t wait to try. We also celebrated our second birthday in August, so thank you to everyone for your continued support. It means a lot.
If you have any questions please email moosonthames@gmail.com
Chris, Thanks for another interesting update. This time you mentioned 'subsoiling'. I knew that compaction happens and assumed that farmers needed to do something about it, but I had never heard how they tackle it. Now I know a little bit more. Found this article that gives a bit more practical background - https://www.fwi.co.uk/machinery/reducing-grassland-compaction-with-subsoiling Gerry