Hi, Chris here from Moos on Thames.
Mostly all the cows are now housed for the winter. We have one group of in calf heifers still outside, these will calve in March and April next year. They are being out wintered on some silage bales that I put in place in the summer. We call this bale grazing, I put the bales out in rows in the summer ready for the winter; when we can give the cows a set number of bales a day using portable electric fencing. The cows get on really well on this system, they get fresh grass and bales in every daily section. And I don’t have to start any machinery to do it, which is a massive bonus as it saves a lot of time in the winter routine.
This year I also tried direct drilling redstart into the field, this is a fast-growing brassica before I put the bales out to add to the amount of forage. This would of worked was it not for the drought this summer. About a third of the redstart grew but I’m encouraged for the potential of it for next year. I choose the worst producing field to out winter in; Iknow this from the weekly grass measuring I do through the growing season. This is because the bale grazing will hopefully increase the nutrients and organic matter in the soil. The field will then be reseeded in the spring with an herbal ley. This is a multi species mix of different grasses, legumes and herbs.
Diversity is key in a organic farming system. I don’t have the luxury of growing a monoculture of one grass species and throwing on a bag of artificial nitrogen and watching it grow. Each plant has its place, for example clovers fix nitrogen from the atmosphere into the soil making it available for the other plants. Chicory has a deep root system which helps break up any compaction in the soil. These herbal leys makes the farm much more resilient against drought and flooding because of the good they do to the soil. The cows also love the variety, which makes great tasting milk.
We have also started to dry off some cows before Christmas, every cow has at least a two month “dry period” before they calve. They get a mineral bolus (like a big vitamin tablet) to make sure there in top condition before they calve. We will dry off another group of cows before Christmas, which will make the Christmas day milking a bit quicker.
Our son Bryn has really been getting into Christmas this year which is exciting. Jenny has been doing elf on a shelf with the Bryn and Freya this year, Bryn loves looking for them in the morning although he did get annoyed with them for playing with his toy diggers.
If you came to the vending machine over Christmas you would have seen the Christmas decorations and Santa hanging from the roof.Hopefully you also tasted some of the great local organic cheeses we have in the vending machine. We added a truffle Gloucester from Simon weaver in the Cotswolds alongside his brie and blue vein brie which are usually in the machine. We also added some organic butter from Brue valley.
We had our first frost of the year this week with the temperatures dropping significantly and some snow. Although this is great fun for the kids we have been battling with the freezing temperatures. We’ve had a -12 which wasn’t great fun to work in. Causing frozen water troughs and some issues in the parlour. The cows don’t mind the cold, they have plenty silage to eat and straw to lie in. This will be the first winter for ourpasteurizing room so I’ve had to insulate some of the waterpipes. But we have got into a good routine with managing the cold weather.
The bird flu outbreak has meant we have had to bring the chickens inside. As the risk from wild birds is too great. We look forward to when we are allowed to let them out again as they do much better outside. This has coincided with an egg shortage in the supermarkets. The supermarkets will tell you that this is because of bird flu. This is rubbish, there is no egg shortage the supermarkets are not paying enough to the farmers for thereeggs. Like every farming business egg producers have seen a massive rise in there input costs over the last year, energy, feed prices etc.
If you want to support farmers buy local. If you have any questions about the vending machine, please email moosonthames@gmail.com
댓글