Farmer Focus: I don’t have the nerve to try maize in Scotland
© Jeff Holmes I write this article envious of those further south harvesting maize.
I’d love to feed maize silage and I’m sure the Jerseys would do well on the extra energy, but it would be a huge gamble in this area.
I’m confident we could grow it under plastic without too much hassle, but I suspect we’d end up with a viral Tik-tok video of three tractors pulling one trailer and the chopper up to its guts.
See also: Floods to cost Scottish farmers millions in crop losses
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We’ve had a serious amount of rainfall recently, thankfully not as much as further north.
It was shocking to see footage of silage bales being washed out into Loch Fyne at Inverary recently.
I sincerely hope that whoever was affected still has enough winter fodder.
In early October, we were still zero grazing. Grass intakes were down to 5.5kg dry matter, but the analysis was excellent at 12MJ/kg metabolisable energy and 24% protein.
One huge advantage of zero grazing is the lack of deterioration in quality at this time of year because there is no cow traffic.
We’re increasing silage daily and are beginning to add back in an 18% protein blend gradually, with the aim of stopping cutting grass by the end of October.
I was enjoying our feed costs being as low as they were all summer, so I’m hoping we see a lift in yields to cover the extra bought-in concentrates.
Our new grass seeds seem to have survived the deluge and are looking well.
We’ve decided against any winter barley this year, however, for the first time in about five years, we’re going with winter wheat.
I’m hoping that the higher growing costs will be offset by increased yield.
We were targeting having everything drilled by mid-October after being zero grazed, mucked and spread with liquid digestate.
Heifers and beef-cross youngstock are still happily grazing outside, which is just as well really as we’re still trying to get sheds ready to house them for winter. I swear this time of year comes around quicker each time!
We had some surveyors in last week looking at a building project.
I think they would have been happier without the inquisitive audience of bullocks in the same field. I had a few phone calls asking if I could shift the “cows”.