Farm Diary - October 28 2009

The cut grass was not good enough to make silage, and we simply have nowhere to put it as all the clamps are full to bursting, it was therefore put in a heap and will be fed into the bio-digester.

The sheep are doing their best to tackle the rest of the farm with swards that are just about manageable for them.

We have a 'flare'! On Sunday night we again tried the flare device to see if the gas from our anaerobic digester plant would burn.

Having endured loud 'pops' and bangs for a number of days, we all stood in amazement when it instantly burst into a very large five foot high flame.

It burns a lovely blue colour, and the burners and the size of the flame is very similar to a hot air balloon device and makes the same roaring noise.

This is all within a 20 ft stainless steel chimney of course, and it can only be seen by peeping under the shroud; very exciting.

The first calves on the 'robot' over at Tillington are being weaned off milk, and their collar does not trigger a milk feed regardless of how many times they enter the stall.

So they wait for another calf which is being fed milk to finish, barging in to suck any dregs from the pipes afterwards!

This soon becomes very boring and they stick to concentrates and straw.

As the machine gradually weans them off milk according to date of birth, the last few in the pen are getting a small amount, but soon they will all be weaned and they can move out of the pen to make way (after cleaning) for the next batch. All four pens are now feeding from the robot and its all working very well.

We are still grazing calves at Tillington and will continue to do so until after Christmas at this rate! We have grass everywhere and our specialist calf unit veterinary (Rob Drysdale) prefers the calves to be outside as it is so much healthier for them, and also to keep stocking rates and age differences in the shed to a minimum.

The hairy coats are growing nicely as they adapt to being outside.

We have been asked to rear some of our Holstein bull calves on the robot by a veal producer, as he is looking for high welfare veal calves to buy at 6 weeks of age.

I am waiting to see how it goes with our heifer calves to start with, but it could be something to think about for the future.

Veal is now rapidly gaining acceptability after welfare groups joined with industry to promote welfare friendly veal; what a difference co-operation makes to all involved.

The problems in Europe regarding the dire state of dairy farming and the desperate plight of some farmers, is escalating, with protests taking place wherever and whenever politicians meet.

This is having an effect, and we saw the Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel finding any money she could (amounting to 280m euros) last week and is proposing to make payments to hard hit dairy farmers across the EU.

This will need to be ratifies by the Finance Council, and the Agriculture Commissioner warned Ministers that this fund would leave her purse 'empty' for 2010.

The UK Govt: and defra have hit out at these plans for an emergency support package for dairy farmers. Both Ministers and MEPs claim the fund flies in the face of CAP reform, and is a move to the 'old days of propping up failing businesses'.

This is all very difficult, because they are right of course, but what is the Commissioner to do?

Faced with genuine hardship and desperation in many EU states, the political pressures are enormous, and she is told to 'do something'. I don't believe for a moment that this is gesture politics on her part, but in reality the fund will make no difference whatsoever to dairy farmers.

Only the market can deliver the sorts of sums needed to restore most (not all) of them into profit.

It is understandable to see politicians wanting to help, and being unwilling to watch as their dairy farmers go to the wall.

Pressure from Ireland for instance is immense, where farmers have always seen their government (in the past) ride to their rescue.

Their government now has no money (just like many others), and we have seen a sea change in Irish lobbying over in Brussels.

The dairy market is recovering, but will it be in time and will it be enough to save many European dairy farmers?

Meanwhile, the NFU is heavily involved in the formation of a 'High Level Group', where the Commission is actively looking at the supply chain.

I will be going over to Brussels at the end of this week to meet economists and officials from the Commission in order to assist in their work on contracts, where we have more experience than anyone else in Europe.

As tension in the EU supply chain continue to escalate, more and more fingers are pointing at the supermarkets, and there genuinely seems to be a will to do something.

It will be interesting to see how it develops, but again the NFU is right in the middle of this as we have years of experience in the UK with 'code of practice', the failure of a 'voluntary' code, and now our call for an Ombudsman.

The Commission has at last realized that we are right with our assertion that there is enough money in the supply chain, and are slightly embarrassed that they are using taxpayer's money to put dairy products in store (intervention), when the retailers are paying less and charging more!

This has, due to recession, affected consumer demand, with more product going into intervention as a result.