Livestock Farmer Focus FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: A journey to Ukraine for Pickups for PeaceThis month, I’ve handed over to my wife, Debbie, to share details of a mission to Ukraine she hopes to help with. She intends to be a driver for the… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Breeding ewes achieve 10p/kg premium over fatThe rams went in with the ewes at the end of October, and as I write this I can see the shocking orange raddle (chosen by my father) on several… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Does RT shambles reveal personal agendas?Who dropped the ball? Good old Red Tractor (RT) sells us short to the British Retail Consortium (BRC). As farmers, we have a voice on the board via representation from… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Glad to own machinery in wet drilling seasonThe clocks have gone back and the dark nights are here – but let’s be honest, it’s felt like winter for a while now. This drilling season has been one… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Pendulum swings to pigs as arable runs tightI hope everyone is well. It feels like October has passed us by in no time at all. The recent wet weather has kept machines in the shed, after a… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Storm Babet wrecks final grazing rotationA problem shared is a problem halved, and we could rightly do without half of the weather that is being thrown at us at the moment. A whopping 110mm of… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Land sale decision made using 80:20 ruleAs I start to write this, we are in Peterhead, en route to the Stirling Bull Sales. We left early, while the boats were still sailing, before Storm Babet got… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Danish student’s visit proves an educationBack in 2022 I was given the opportunity by the Welsh government’s Farming Connect initiative to produce a 15-minute video about outdoor pig keeping. It’s one of a series titled… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: I don’t have the nerve to try maize hereI 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… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Wheat break is insurance for grass and maizeIt’s been a fair time for growing grass this summer and autumn. Our challenge has been harvesting it, whether finding a weather window to forage it, or deciding if it’s… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Daughters trusted with ram selection and bidsDuring a week in mid-September, we had our annual TB test, and also dipped all the sheep. These are not the jobs we look forward to but at the end… FARMER FOCUSFarmer Focus: Plenty of forage, but costs are still bitingThe maize is in the clamps. The yield monitor counted 730t freshweight off 12.14ha (30 acres), which is about 60t/ha. The best bits yielded more than 100t/ha at 34-36% dry… More articles
