Glensaugh News 19 July 2010
Glensaugh, like most of Britain, has had a dry season to date, but enough rain has fallen recently to keep grass growing and to interfere with hay and silage making. We made two fields into “haylage” (a cross between hay and silage which is baled and wrapped to allow anaerobic fermentation), and a further four fields into silage. This came in very dry despite having been rained on, because on the day bright sunshine and strong wind stripped out enough moisture to raise dry matter to about 30% which will guarantee effluent free silage. Securing our winter feed stock is a defining event in the farming year and we can now look forward to the remainder of the season with a degree of confidence.
The other event of mid summer is shearing, which is now complete. The final seasonal job, dung spreading [see photograph] is an important follow up to silage making as it replenishes P and K levels and stimulates growth to provide swards for feeding finishing lambs. With seasonal work up to date holiday time has arrived and all staff will now enjoy a well earned break.
On 13 July we hosted a visit from SAC’s suckler cow discussion group. Some of our cows are now grazing “in bye” in our cleared silage fields [see photograph] so this provided an opportunity to view the stock and discuss grassland management. The output from our herd is very respectable and last year totalled £32,000, but the gross margin is wafer thin. Most of our costs are accounted for through the purchase of replacement breeding stock, and winter feed. With silage costing £25 per tonne it is not the cheap feed that some people seem to think and we have given SAC our permission to circulate our silage costings to their group members as “food for thought”.
