Farm Diary

They are quite exposed on the hill; we thought that we had done a good enough job by generously overlapping the heavy green sheets, but they are nowhere near as good as a completely tyred clamp.

We sheeted it back up and we have now clipped the sheets together. The maize looked as good as the day we ensiled it with no waste at all which is good.

I have had to bring some sheep on to my silage fields to eat off the surplus grass, which is now threatening to turn a nasty brown colour and form a horrible mat, which will be a nightmare when it comes to cutting high quality grass silage in May.

I needed a lot of sheep for a short period of time, but I realise that we will need to compromise slightly due to the cost of transport. We will therefore graze each area in turn, and maybe allow the sheep to stay a little longer on the last block, so that we all get a fair deal.

I will be more organised next winter, as once again the rant of 'climate change' had influenced me to think that the mild winters would continue, and I no longer needed sheep to graze winter grass growth, as it would stay green until the spring.

For full feature see West Sussex Gazette January 21