Farm Diary March 4 2009

The birds and the bees (very active this weekend) are telling me that its time to get on with it, and Lorayne has cut the lawn, so it must be spring. The days are getting longer, and in three weeks we will turn the clocks forward (yes!), and the temperature is certainly spring-like at the moment.

We are well under way with preparing maize ground, which is just as well since we are renting more ground for maize this year. I want it all ready for drilling by the middle of April, so that we can choose the optimal time for drilling each site.

More thought has gone into choosing maize seed varieties, and we are drilling some early varieties this year for the first time. I am also giving even more attention to every aspect of growing the crop following last year's disappointing yields.

I know that weather has a big part to play, but I feel we can do a better job, and since the costs of growing a 12 tonne per acre crop are the same as a 18 tonne per acre crop, it is vital that the 50% difference in costs per tonne are addressed.

The second concrete tower for the 'Bio-Digester' is coming along nicely now on the building site, and I can see that the concrete workers job will be done by the end of this month. The German engineers will be here in ten days or so, to install pumps, mixers, and build the roof on both tanks.

The insulation material will need to be wrapped and clamped around each tower before they are clad, and we are itching to start filling in the soil around them both, so that the base for the control room and engine/generator sheds can be built.

The towers will be well in the ground (at least three meters) at the top of the site, but at the operational end, their full size (eight meters plus six meter roof) will be visible. Now that the second tower is taking shape, the full size of these things is beginning to register.

We sold just over a hundred cows last week down at Sedgemoor Mart. We thought we would take full advantage of the demand for dairy cows to sell the cows that are least suited to our system, given that milk prices are falling yet again.

Having changed from a cheese contract to a liquid milk contract a few years ago, we no longer get paid anything for protein, and very little for fat. Plenty of litres is the answer to making a margin from liquid milk, and the best cows for cheese production are not suited for our current contract, but are hugely valuable to those in the West Country who are on cheese contracts.

We had a very good sale, and we are now busy calving down heifers which will replace these cows.

We had to load the cattle at 1.00am so that the trucks had time to get them there comfortably, clean the cows ready for sale and settle them down. I went to bed at 8.00pm and set the alarm for 00.15am. The lads stayed up!

Just as we were ready to direct the first truck into the yard at ten to one, the milk tanker turned up! An hour later we were loading the cows, and we were all finished, with a convoy of huge trucks leaving the farm at 3.30am. I stayed up as it was within an hour of my normal day; the lads went to bed!

At 9.00am, Adrian rang from the mart (he had gone down the night before), to tell me that there was one passport missing. I then had to find the missing passport, and set off on a 300 mile round trip, getting back late afternoon, with matchsticks keeping my eyes open! We had checked and double-checked the paperwork, checked all ear-tags etc: Without the passport the cow would have been shot, and the sooner we can move away from this paper trail, and move cows electronically, the better!

The NFU and farmers have won the first battle in court over the Foot and Mouth Disease outbreak which took place in 2007. The first group of farmers have won an out of court settlement from the research institutes at Pirbright Laboratories. T

he Institute of Animal Health and Merial Animal health did not admit liability in court, but settled the claims of farmers affected by the release of the virus from the facilities. The second case for farmers further afield is more complex, but no less deserving, and ran three whole days.

The judge will now decide if this second case goes to full trial. The research institutes will of course hope that they have now weakened the NFU and farmer's claim by settling the strongest claimants, but morally they have admitted liability in my opinion.