In-calf heifers causing some problems

They seem to be standing in lakes and pools of water; such is the carpet of bluebells, again such vivid colours. Is this the result of a hard winter, or maybe the seasonal weather last year? Our apple blossom in the garden is wonderful, but will there be any apples with this frost? I am concerned for the maize; it does not like this weather one bit and it could affect yield.

The big question today is do I start making silage? It is dry and from now on the grass quality might start to deteriorate, and if it starts to rain next week will it stop? On the other hand, the yield will be less than usual due to lack of growth; sugars will be low due to lack of sunshine and warm weather. The forecast is for it to stay dry, but cold. No comfort there!

If I cut I will at least set the farm up for second cut, and we can use the dirty water to get things going while we wait for rain, although there is still moisture in this clay.

However, due to the lack of sunshine and growth, will the grass have utilized the nitrogen, or will it still be carried in the leaf, turning my silage into a horrible, unstable, butyric mess?

If I wait, I will get more tonnage, still reasonable quality, and a good fermentation, but if it rains, then I will be making this in unsuitable conditions, However, if I wait and it does not rain it will be very good, except that it will be so dry by then that there will be little or no re-growth and the second cut will be in jeopardy.

A further complication is that if I cut now, I will have re-growth for the cows to graze in three weeks time, but if I wait, not only does that push back the aftermath grazing for the cows, but again if it stays dry, will there be much re-growth? From now on, each dry day however cloudy or overcast, will be taking moisture from the soil, and we are starting from a point where there has been no significant rain for 5 '“ 6 weeks. Worrying.

n We have failed to move our in-calf heifers! They will not come out of the field and move into the next one. We tried last Friday with no success; we ran, we called, we shouted, and we swore (until I noticed that the Plaistow Primary School teachers had arrived to carry out the pre-school visit recce). I left them in the same field until Monday, and although they had eaten all the grass, they would still not come out.

Once again I shut the gate and I will try again today, and they have three choices. Stay in there and starve, come out and enjoy another lush paddock of grass, or be chased around with the farm bike until they submit.

They know that I will not let them eat the sward down too tight because it will affect re-growth, they also know that I will not chase them around on the bike as they are in-calf. So, I will have to be patient '“ unless I shoot one of them as a salutary lesson to the others '“ the gang leader maybe?

Not at today's prices, as they know only too well.

The bio-digester is not working properly; in fact it is quite serious. We have a problem with the feeding system, and we are unable to get enough material into the tanks, and the gas production has been falling for a week now. We have hit the point where gas production has almost halved and the engine is only producing half its potential output, which is costing us a fortune. Much worse, it is on the point of switching off as it has a minimum production of 500 kw and it will simply stop.

We first started having problems a week ago, in fact very soon after I started bragging how well it was going- which is a lesson I never seem to learn. I think it's a man thing, bragging, (and not learning according to Lorayne).

We have stripped down the feeding system and re-built the whole thing with new parts at huge expense, which we now learn is a regular maintenance programme. All to no avail. The feed keeps 'bridging' as the 'quick-mix' (nothing quick or mix about it at the moment) will not take the feed at the correct rate.

We have taken the yard muck out of the menu, thinking that the long straw was making things worse, but it has made no difference. Today the company engineers are returning and will take it apart again. It has to be a fundamental problem, and we think that the slurry flow into the 'quick-mix' is too high and the augers cannot grab the fiberous material in order to mix it in. We must solve this today, as it is all pretty serious and the first real test after a very good start. It was all going so well as they say.

We have had some good news from government (what Government I hear you say), but millions of pounds could be saved due to 450 farmers or more applying for derogations from the European Vulnerable Zone (NVZ) rule, to use 50 per cent more manure on farm.

It means that these farmers can get the benefit of using this manure on their farms, rather than find extra land, move it on to someone else's farm ('export'), or cut stock numbers. These options would have been very costly, and many dairy farms will benefit from this success led by the NFU.

The NFU through negotiation has also brought about a reduction in the NVZ area by 9 per cent. This was due to our refusal to discuss these rules in any way other than by sticking to the science; that being when nitrogen levels in water falls below the EU stipulated level, that the catchment area concerned, will be de-designated.

This will continue, as the trend is a downward one due to farmers over the last few years being much more precise in their nitrogen application as technology improves.

A much larger effect is that Public Water and Sewage companies have also had to invest heavily in order to prevent raw sewage entering water courses and rivers. The combined effect should lower the Nitrogen levels, allowing other catchment areas to be de-designated. Good news all round.