- Location
- Welshpool Powys
Traditional mixed Farming
- Thread starter Kevtherev
- Start date
credit to 
Going to put it to Barley instead, simpler to grow that fodder beet cheaper and easier to keep clean
light coat of dung then plough at the weekend if it stays dry.
straw for use plus ive got some home and dry in store from previous. ive remembered.
despite what ive said about growing corn and i would miss corn harvest of some sort ,even one field.
basically Sometimes it comes down to what makes you happy , as keeping the whole thing 'sustainable 'to use a trendy word , in the long term relies on enjoying what you do doesn't it,
tis for me anyway.
i mean all grass with some of the good soil like weve got is a bit wrong i feel in me bones and moving electric paddock fences and a few cattle doesn't really float my boat anyway.
Check out " Fertility Farming " published in1951 , written by farmer Newman Turner who turned his back on chemical farming , in favour of rotational mixed non ploughing even organic farming, there's alot that he practiced then (70yrs ago ), that the regenerative boys are embracing today
- Location
- somerset
its a good read, lots of sensible ideas, and l can confirm that lots of them work.
Reckoned we have saved a lot of money to, and, we have modern 'tools' to make it easier.
But the 'trade' hates it, because you don't buy so many inputs, so ridicule is quite common. After all, who would believe, you could make the same money, with less inputs.
- Location
- Welshpool Powys
Best give this thread a bump along
- Location
- somerset
giving it another bump, if we could farm what we wanted to, what sort of mixed farm, would you run, or the ideal 'mix'
the biggest problems we have, are so many of us specialised in one thing, dairy, corn and sheep etc. So to go back, to mixed, isn't easy, and so much is a numbers game now.
- Location
- Welshpool Powys
In an ideal world maybe back to 1950s style beef sheep arable and maybe a small dairy herd.
Impossible now I know as no man power
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
No manpower tends to equal energy dependent alternatives, which could be quite a lot more fragile in reality than a simple-but-specialised farming system where tasks can be "completed" with low energy inputs.
Eg no leccy might mean no fuel might mean no go? Or even if production is maintained, produce can't leave the farm as easily.
- at least a worker can function on a full belly, agriculture really dropped the ball by replacing men via various "efficiencies", but all hell breaks loose if you suggest it's a fad.
I think it's increasingly difficult to maintain "food security" within a system 100% reliant on energy/fuel security.
- Location
- somerset
we used to have 110 dairy cows, replacement hfrs for 220 cows, uncles herd, 80 sows, taking through to heavy hogs, 360 lb, 4/500 laying hens, deep litter, and 120 acres of corn, finished making cheese, when l was 3/4 yrs.
The cow numbers crept up, the sows crept down, until disease, and old buildings, finished them off, replacement hfrs crept up, as did corn, chickens slowly went, until ended up with 200 cows, replacements and 180 ac corn. Went from 8 employed, down to 4, Farm was split, in the mid 90's, and employed labour, 1, on our bit, none.
If the same labour was employed today, as 60's, we would have more respect from guv !
ideally l would have a few pigs, most farmers like pigs, when the pigs are sold in mkt, the auctioneer, has a large crowd, watching, and very few buyers. Few layers, -cash from egg sales, and the dairy, probably a few beef, sheep, depends on what mood i'm in, and arable, for home use.
But labour costs prohibit that, simply not enough money in the job, unless you take the dairy out, then its a no's game. Having said that, we have started corn again, for home use, and rearing beef calves, up for stores.
The cow numbers crept up, the sows crept down, until disease, and old buildings, finished them off, replacement hfrs crept up, as did corn, chickens slowly went, until ended up with 200 cows, replacements and 180 ac corn. Went from 8 employed, down to 4, Farm was split, in the mid 90's, and employed labour, 1, on our bit, none.
If the same labour was employed today, as 60's, we would have more respect from guv !
ideally l would have a few pigs, most farmers like pigs, when the pigs are sold in mkt, the auctioneer, has a large crowd, watching, and very few buyers. Few layers, -cash from egg sales, and the dairy, probably a few beef, sheep, depends on what mood i'm in, and arable, for home use.
But labour costs prohibit that, simply not enough money in the job, unless you take the dairy out, then its a no's game. Having said that, we have started corn again, for home use, and rearing beef calves, up for stores.
simonk88
Member
- Location
- Lincolnshire Wolds
You can have a mixed farm, we work with 3 local guys on muck for straw (as well as our own suckler herd), we also grow grass leys for them as an arable break, the leys (and our cover crops) are grazed through the winter by another 2 local guys sheep, we take chicken manure and now trying to get hold of some pig slurry too. Probably adding muck to 25% of the arable a year. Grass covers about 10% of the arable area. Cover crops are 40% of the rest of the area. We couldn't do it all on our own, so we work with local guys, less risk for us, allows others to build a sustainable business and much more interesting!
- Location
- Welshpool Powys
ollie989898
Member
Am I correct in thinking that cheese was originally made as a way of storing milk/food for winter back when no little refrigeration equipment existed?
I have a book which mentions that back in the day, people used to eat cheese as it was cheaper than meat and they would make cheese sausages, etc. It got me thinking that cheese must have been a mass market product that would have been a reliable way of getting protein and fat in a form which could be stored long term in a cold house without problems.
- Location
- Somerset
Cheese sausages... Now theres something I want to try
thats not that long ago in human history? many people in the "countryside" had no utilities at all, im talking about mains drainage, mains water, and electric, my uncle, when he first got married to my mothers sister in the late 1940s, early 50s, had all of the above, meat was keep in "meat safe", really just a cupboard, with a zinc metal tiny perforated front, to keep the flies out? when you actually think of the recent past, ( within many still alives lifetime) all that? and alot more was "the way of life", bacon, ham, smoked meats and sausages were a very important way of preserving "fresh meat" so was cheese, pickerling , fruits, and veg, with "kilner" jars was another , very important way to preserve food to last the "hungary gap", thats the hard long winters of the past?
ollie989898
Member
- Location
- Somerset
Of course they have to call it a vegetarian food... Still, look quite nice.
Cab-over Pete
Member
- Location
- Kenilworth, Warwickshire
I can remember a farm that had hams hanging from the kitchen beam 40 years ago.
And one thing I always remember was my Nan never using any kind of disinfectant spray. She would scrub stuff to death with some kind of fizzy stuff and if she was cutting raw meat or fish she did it on newspaper.
- Location
- Welshpool Powys
Remember doing work on some old houses and they had an outdoor type of larder fridge like an underground shed cut into the bank
Very cold in there in the clay.
Very cold in there in the clay.
- Location
- somerset
we had a 'cold' room, when we used to make cheese, half underground, cork walls, and water pipes running all around the room, 12ins apart. Varying from 1/2 in, to 3/4in to 1in, and back, several times !
Always wondered why our water pressure was very low, it was off the mains. Had a burst pipe, and reconnected, away from there, pressure x 4 !
Always wondered why our water pressure was very low, it was off the mains. Had a burst pipe, and reconnected, away from there, pressure x 4 !
- Location
- Lincolnshire
Most farmhouses here had a semi underground pantry or “dairy” to keep things cold.
Our butcher would never use any kind of disinfectant or detergent when cleaning equipment, just hot water.
We didn’t have mains water here till 1974. All of our drinking water came out of the well near the house.
And another random historical point: when my grandfather moved down here in 1953, from Scotland he wanted to continue dairy farming down here. But my uncle wanted to grow arable crops mainly because he liked machinery not cows. That was a pivotal moment in the history of this farm when you look back and in many ways it was a case of the tail wagging the dog. This farm is actually much more suited to livestock than arable and I often wonder what would have happened if my grandfather had got his way and established a dairy herd down here. Arguably my grandfather was the last professional farmer in our family until my brother came along. My father, uncle and myself were more machinery orientated and let that cloud our decision making in farming policy.
You live and learn. Machinery isn’t a means in itself. Do too many of us skew our farming policy to suit our enthusiasm for machinery over our reluctance to deal with stock? I know I do, and that’s basically the wrong approach.
Our butcher would never use any kind of disinfectant or detergent when cleaning equipment, just hot water.
We didn’t have mains water here till 1974. All of our drinking water came out of the well near the house.
And another random historical point: when my grandfather moved down here in 1953, from Scotland he wanted to continue dairy farming down here. But my uncle wanted to grow arable crops mainly because he liked machinery not cows. That was a pivotal moment in the history of this farm when you look back and in many ways it was a case of the tail wagging the dog. This farm is actually much more suited to livestock than arable and I often wonder what would have happened if my grandfather had got his way and established a dairy herd down here. Arguably my grandfather was the last professional farmer in our family until my brother came along. My father, uncle and myself were more machinery orientated and let that cloud our decision making in farming policy.
You live and learn. Machinery isn’t a means in itself. Do too many of us skew our farming policy to suit our enthusiasm for machinery over our reluctance to deal with stock? I know I do, and that’s basically the wrong approach.