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March-09-07 - March 2007

Since writing the article last month, our spring calving suckler cows have been transported to their new quarters near Glynllifon and are settling in well. At the time of writing, one calf has appeared and is thriving in the fresh sea air. Lambing has also started at Ty Mawr and early indications are that the ewes are in excellent condition, producing lambs that are full of vigour. Having recently attended a couple of benchmarking meetings, organised through Organic Centre Wales, we feel that we have done the right thing in establishing a low cost unit at Ty Mawr, where the livestock can remain out most of the year and do not require expensive buildings and excessive labour to look after them. This is especially true at the moment when all our payments seem to be squeezed. The results of these costing exercises suggest that not many farms would be viable without the single farm payment which is very concerning when looking to the future.

We recently had a farm visit by the Welsh Assembly Government’s Technical Services Division, which was quite interesting for both parties as we were able to air some of our concerns and difficulties to them first hand. It is good to see that they do occasionally come out onto farms so that they can see for themselves the issues that we have to deal with ‘ in the real world’! In their defence, they do have some good practical people in their midst that understand the industry very well.

            Back to the land here at Rhug, and we managed to grab the opportunity during some dry weather in February to spread some green waste compost onto some grassland. This was applied at a rate of ten tonnes per acre and the benefits are already being seen with the grass greening up where it has been applied. This will hopefully enable us to turn out some cattle before long onto some fresh spring grass.

The spring seeds have been ordered and are ready to go, but, as normally happens this time of year the land is currently too wet to progress with the ploughing and cultivation work. We have in the region of two hundred acres to plough and sow in the next few weeks. We will start with the spring sown cereals, namely, Triticale and Oats followed by our arable silage mix which consists of Oats,Peas and Vetches which we under sow with either a Red Clover or a White Clover Ley. In amongst all this we have a few thousand ewes to lamb, which should keep us out of mischief for a while!

The preliminary works have started on the new bridge and road scheme by the old Creamery with the site preparation being carried out in advance of the main scheme which should commence this summer. The result should be a much safer bridge crossing the river Alwen and better visibility along this stretch of the A5.

Written By: Gareth Jones

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