All things Dairy

Blue.

Member
Livestock Farmer
My straw chopping man switched to a Teagle machine with a conveyor which greatly cut down on the dust. Trouble was the dust then ended up in the cows and some of them died from it. Didn’t help that the straw was drier than it had ever been after last years hot summer
Yes very dry straw this year.

Every time I chop straw it seems to be windy,don't mind dust blowing away,not so keen on my straw disappearing.:banghead:
 
Growth being hampered by frosts. Not really warming up till next thursday, so just easing the pressure on the platform.
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Location
East Mids
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Attempt at staying TB free again after 18 months of being shut down after our electric fences got smothered by weeds/grass once we converted to organic and couldn’t spray them.
TB / badgers make so much blooming work. Pre-turnout checks on 3 fields have revealed TWO new latrines which we will have to fence off.
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Turned the milkers out today, always a nice day but tainted by finding those latrines and also a nice 3rd calver aborting her sexed semen heifer calf that was due right at the start calving in August.:(
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Location
East Mids
Best end,there nothing but trouble.
yeah, especially as I was wrong she's in her 4th lactation now so it would have been her 5th calving - the bull is in with them so hopefully he can get her back in calf to calve before we pull the plug, usually have a cut-off point about first week in March. She's always been a really fertile cow, comes bulling quick and held first time every year, one of only 3 of her cohort that survived our explosive TB breakdown in 2015 as an in-calf heifer. She is also expert at standing at the front of the parlour after being milked to knick a bit more cake.
 

Agrispeed

Member
Location
Cornwall
Badgers are an interesting problem. There are 30+ Badgers on 140ac here and currently TB free, despite all my neighbours being down and don't have to fence off latrines or anything. In a way a large population of healthy badgers are currently my best protection from TB. That could change very quickly though, and probably will.
 

Homesy

Member
Location
North West Devon
Badgers are an interesting problem. There are 30+ Badgers on 140ac here and currently TB free, despite all my neighbours being down and don't have to fence off latrines or anything. In a way a large population of healthy badgers are currently my best protection from TB. That could change very quickly though, and probably will.

I thought that. We had over 50+ on our farm. Fine until they get infected. Then you have a massive reservoir of infection and the inevitable breakdown follows.
 

jondear

Member
Location
Devon
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Attempt at staying TB free again after 18 months of being shut down after our electric fences got smothered by weeds/grass once we converted to organic and couldn’t spray them.
Whats your Tb situation got to do with weeds under your electric fence .??
Tbh that will be the least if your worries .Get a strimmer with a hedge cutting head sorted!
Good tracks .Don't think I could get away with it quite so narrow!
 

pine_guy

Member
Location
North Cumbria
Whats your Tb situation got to do with weeds under your electric fence .??
Tbh that will be the least if your worries .Get a strimmer with a hedge cutting head sorted!
Good tracks .Don't think I could get away with it quite so narrow!
I think he’s fencing out the badgers so the wire is low to the ground, the track is so there is no vegetation to grow where the fence is.

But @Scholsey what kind of energies we are you using. A good powerful one should burn of any vegetation I’d of thought.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 114 38.3%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 114 38.3%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 42 14.1%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 6 2.0%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 5 1.7%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 17 5.7%

Expanded and improved Sustainable Farming Incentive offer for farmers published

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Expanded Sustainable Farming Incentive offer from July will give the sector a clear path forward and boost farm business resilience.

From: Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs and The Rt Hon Sir Mark Spencer MP Published21 May 2024

s300_Farmland_with_farmFarmland_with_farmhouse_and_grazing_cattle_in_the_UK_Farm_scene__diversification__grazing__rural__beef_GettyImages-165174232.jpg

Full details of the expanded and improved Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) offer available to farmers from July have been published by the...
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