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Viewpoints
Home Farm: Quality Assurance inspection time
Matt Dempsey
I had looked at getting vermin-proof roller doors but the cost was significant, the gain marginal and the inconvenience and the exposure to possible breakage through machinery damage was real.
20 November 2024 Viewpoints
Home Farm: options for supplementing cattle rations
If we cannot get good by-products at a competitive price, then we will unwillingly replace them with imported product which does nobody any good.
13 November 2024 Viewpoints
Nitrogen vs clover
Weather conditions are ideal for aphids, the same conditions also seem to favour slugs.
Home Farm: changed routine in a changed early winter
The crops are a glorious verdant green, though the latest sown crop, the gluten free oats is slower to emerge than I expected given the mild conditions.
6 November 2024 Viewpoints
Home Farm: focus on cattle
We now have about one third of our cattle in the sheds, with the rest still outside finishing off aftergrass and some paddocks with good covers.
30 October 2024 Viewpoints
Home Farm: Sowing the last of the autumn crops
While this autumn has been a huge improvement in being able to get crops established, it had been an expensive summer.
23 October 2024 Viewpoints
Home Farm: beans harvested but badgers noticed
With all the wheat, barley and oilseed rape safely sown, there is only the oats left.
16 October 2024 Viewpoints
Home Farm: the hardiness of our dairy beef cattle
I explained the symptoms, to be told that there was a vet in the area and within half an hour, he was in the field.
9 October 2024 Viewpoints
Home Farm: weather panics from last year
Last year's difficulties with weather delaying harvesting and sowing has over-influenced our decision-making this year in rushing us to harvest.
18 September 2024 Viewpoints
Home Farm: some cattle in, mole ploughing in tillage
We have ended up housing the most forward cattle and will probably aim to finish them for the pre-Christmas market.
11 September 2024 Viewpoints
Home Farm: Will we have to house cattle this week?
I would expect to have the silage aftergrass growing vigorously at this stage, so that we could spread the cattle out across the place, but it’s too soon to let stock out on it yet.
4 September 2024 Viewpoints
Home Farm: a tale of two enterprises
Never have we sown oilseed rape so early, but the expensive lesson of late sowing, followed by a wet autumn, has left a mark.
28 August 2024 Viewpoints