Farm Diary

SILAGE making again. By the time you read this, weather permitting, I hope to be making the earliest second cut ever at Crouchlands.

There is a fair crop and the quality should be very good indeed, which will be key to spending less on expensive bought in foods next winter.

I have spent two days judging the 'Farmers Weekly' magazine's 'Dairy Farmer of the year' competition, and quality forage is the one key ingredient that was common between all three finalists. The winner will not be announced until October, but I can tell you that the standard was extremely high, and as a judge I learnt a great deal.

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We will re-seed several silage fields this autumn, in order to ensure better quality silage next year and also less purchased chemical fertilizer by growing more clover in the swards.

Until last year, all our grass fields had been down since I first re-seeded the whole farm in the early 1980's, nearly thirty years ago, but with the need for more clover and in order to take advantage of the new high sugar grass varieties, we need to do it again.

Weed grasses have slowly invaded the swards over the years, and our slurry application in winter have not helped. We will only be applying dirty water and separated slurry water from now on; all within the growing season in order to maximise the fertilizer value.

For full feature see West Sussex Gazette June 18

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