Farm Diary Sept 16 2009

I am very cautious when telling farmers from other parts of the country how good this year has been, because in the west, from Cornwall and Devon right up through Wales it has been a terrible summer, with dairy cows back inside weeks ago due to the appalling conditions.

The North-West is just as bad, and Scotland '“ don't ask!

Here, we are now enjoying ideal weather for maize harvesting, whilst the autumn calving herds of Sussex and Surrey are calving down in fabulous conditions. If I was in control (of the weather) this year; I would not have made any changes.

We cut 140 acres of maize last week for the cows, and 200 acres up in Ripley for the 'bio-digester'.

Amazing crops and the clamp at Crouchlands is half full with only 25-30 per cent of the crop cut. We were finishing the back wall of the clamp (which is a new addition) as the first loads were coming in.

The clamp will be very high this year by the time we finish. We have another 500 acres to cut but not for another week. It is so good to have a bumper year, especially after last year's disappointing yields.

I don't know how much of this is down to the season, or the fact that I have followed our ace agronomist's (Robin Shaw) advice to the letter. I suspect that it's a bit of both.

We are now preparing the cubicle sheds for winter, carrying out essential repairs, some 'accidental' damage caused by the scraper tractor (!), and replacing some of the plastic in the feed troughs.

We also need to repair the concrete on the yard, where vast quantities of material in heavy lorries has been too much for a farmyard constructed 30 years ago for cows and light traffic!

Fencing is a continuous job these days especially on the sand at Tillington, due to the appalling quality of current fence posts. I have a friend who is looking into importing re-cycled plastic fence posts. They are not as cheap, but given the cost of replacing poor quality wooden posts, it looks more attractive these days.

We have several hundred lambs grazing the clover leys that seem to keep growing on without any fertilizer at all.

The grass is too proud to be left over winter, and some extra income from grazing sheep will be very welcome.

Driving around the farm to discuss which fields to graze, the other night, I was again amazed at the wildlife we have on this farm.

Just before dusk, and in a vehicle, which is not seen as a threat, many deer, foxes, rabbits, pheasants, were either grazing, hunting, or showing off! They all look in good condition and this season has been good for them too.

The calves are taking to the robot at Tillington, but our hopes that older calves on twice a day feeding would be easier to train turned out not to be true. We trained them on in the evening, only to find them all waiting to be fed in the morning, and thoroughly dissatisfied with the amount they received.

Gradually, they learnt to take smaller meals more often, but it took longer than we thought. The information given is very good, and we can scroll down the list to see how much each calf has drunk, how vigorously it sucked and how many times it started sucking but then walked away.

On Thursday morning, I received a call from a welsh farmer to tell me they would be on the farm within the hour.

At first I didn't know what he was talking about, and then the full horror slowly dawned on me. This was a coachload of welsh farmers and their wives from Cardiganshire, who had arranged to visit the farm to see the dairy and 'bio-digester'.

This was arranged many weeks ago, but I had it in my diary for the 10th of October! I was due for a blood test at the local surgery, which took seconds as the high blood pressure and adrenaline shot a sample into the test-tube and before the nurse could exclaim her amazement, I was gone!

As we were cutting maize, I had a high speed drive to check another two blocks of maize to see if they were also ready for cutting or not. Lorayne in the meantime was raiding the village shop, so that tea, drinks and sandwiches would all be ready by midday.

The coach duly arrived and was covered in dust as the Glebedales' 'Formula 1' team raced in and out with huge loads of maize silage.

I took the farmers on a guided tour, shouting above the noise of tractors and large shovel on the silage clamp.

The cows took it in their stride, making sure that the best looking hid at the back, whilst the poorer looking ones paraded right at the front.

We had a good discussion about milking parlours (nothing changes) and Lorayne came up trumps with a glass of 'Pimms' for them all on the lawn before they tucked into the sandwiches and left.

What will they remember? Sunshine for a start; the only sunshine they have had in 2009! The complexity and size of the 'bio-digester', which they seemed to think was the most amazing but crazy thing they had ever seen.

Our foreign staff was an eye-opener for them, and the management challenge for Adrian to not only look after the cows, but to look after and manage the staff.

They will remember the dust and the sheer scale and high speed of Glebedales the maize contractor.

That's all the coach driver will remember, having had to dive with his precious coach into the ditch every time yet another tractor and trailer came to meet him between Plaistow and Petworth.

Did they enjoy themselves, you bet they did, and the fact that I had forgotten they were coming was an added bonus.