Archived News

28th November 2010

The cold weather is upon us, but thankfully we’ve missed the snow which has fallen to the north and west.  Everything is frozen so we’ve reverted to carrying buckets of warm water out to the hens and pigs. Soon after breakfast Percy and his friend Lizzie made the sensible move back into their straw filled sty.

All the winter varieties of cropping are complete although one field of linseed is already a right-off due to decimation by rabbits. We have approximately 615 acres winter wheat; some of which is sold forward,  350 acres oilseed rape, 153 acres of triticale (3 varieties) grown on seed contracts to Attlees and Sherbourne Seeds, winter barley on contract for Bartholomews and 45 acres winter linseed being grown for Premium Crops.  With the cultivations complete until the spring cropping, David and Ed have mostly moved out of the fields and onto maintenance or livestock work.

We’ve bought some new feed troughs for the larger barns but David has also repaired and adapted the old feeders at Paddington.  All feeders are outside the barns now, optimising space for cattle.

Old food troughs before and after repair

There’s no real grass about now, so most of the Friesian x cattle have been moved to their winter barns or fields where Donald will give them a mix of grub according to whether they are growers (6-15 months old) or finishers (16 – 24 months old).  Laurence adjusts the ingredients of the food mix according to the results gathered when the cattle are weighed and sorted. 

Donald reverses the tractor and feed wagon alongside the barn,

sets the wagon in motion

and drives forward as the trough fills.

The cattle tuck in

There are about 150 finishers in barns at Raikes, 180 at Churchfield and 50 at Paddington, 150 outside at Coast Hill and 130 at Churchfield.

David is fixing gates and water troughs at Hackhurst barn in preparation for the remaining cattle (about 120) to be gathered in from fields at Lemons, Hackhurst, Albury and Park farm.

The straw chopper has been in use for a couple of weeks and has removed one person completely from bedding up.  It’s now taking about three quarters of a day to bed up the cattle at Churchfield, Raikes and Paddington.

Two men are on the job now; Sam operates the tele-handler loading 15 straw bales onto a trailer and towing that to the various barn locations. 

The tele-handler then loads two bales into the rear of the chopper which is powered by a tractor.  Ed controls the chopper from within the tractor cab and chopped straw shoots out into the barn. 

The cattle tend to move to the back of the barn when the machine starts work,

but their sense of fun seems to kick in as they skit about and almost play in the straw as it’s blown above them.