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September-12-06 - July 2006

 Talking of holidays, a very pleasant week was spent in the Austrian Alps where haymaking was in full swing at an altitude of 3,280 feet (Snowdon – 3,500 feet). There seemed to be many small scale farms surviving on these steep banks, keeping mainly Simmental cattle and these were mostly indoors, although we did see a couple of herds grazing at about 6,000 feet. The haymaking process was similar to this country except that all the machinery was in minature, and the hay was picked up with a forage wagon and stored loose in their barns.

The stubble turnips have been in the ground for about a month now but have not yet emerged due to the lack of rain, although we have been more fortunate than most with a couple of thunderstorms over the past few weeks (apart from the monsoon that we experienced during Llangollen Eisteddfod week which flooded several houses as well as closing the A5 for a few hours in Corwen). Our Ewe Lambs that we graze on tack at our other farm in Shropshire have had to return home early, due to the lack of grass down there. It is actually quite serious there with no significant rain for weeks. The grass is brown and the cereals are dying rather than ripening naturally. The straw has been moving along the A5 in the past couple of weeks and will probably become a valuable commodity, as some farmers are having to feed it already.On the plus side our lambs are thriving in this weather and are finishing well.

I recently attended an Organic cattle sale in Brecon where there was a strong demand for store cattle on the back of a good demand for finished organic beef. At the moment we could sell twice the amount of beef cattle than we produce, but they do not seem to finish quite the same in this hot weather.

We spent a couple of days at last week’s Royal Welsh Show which, in attendance terms, was the most successful ever having 239,000 people through the turnstiles over the four day show.

We are currently mowing our arable silage crops (Oats, Peas and Vetches), although they have ripened earlier than normal, they are yielding well and should provide our cattle with high quality silage during the winter. We are also cutting the Red Clover leys for the second time (it was last cut six weeks ago). This is a remarkable crop which is high in protein, high yielding and fixes nitrogen in the soil, which is obviously very important to us as organic farmers. The other important factor, especially at the moment, is that it is drought resistant which could mean that we will see more of this crop in the future.

Written By: Gareth Jones

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