Autumn at last!

As October arrives, we have finished maize harvesting which yielded about 1650 tonnes of winter feed for the dairy cattle. The quality has been a little variable due to the very dry summer, but in all it should be of a decent quality for the cattle. We will get a sample tested for feed value in a few weeks after it has 'pickled' in the silage pit.
 

We have also been getting on with some autumn cultivation work. The students have been working through a large muck heap, spreading it on the corn stubble and ploughing it in preparation for next springs maize drilling. Our local contractors have also drilled some grass seed into a couple of fields. Doing this now might seem a bit late on the calendar, but the ground conditions and weather are still good, so we will take the risk and hope the seed gets going well enough before any winter frost stops it growing. If we do get a wet spring, we will be glad of getting it in now and not losing a month waiting in April for the ground to dry enough to get machinery on.

 
The tups (male sheep) have now been put out in the fields with the ewes. Our new Texel has teamed up with an older, more experienced Suffolk tup and they are running with 56 younger ewes that were bought this year. I am still very pleased with the purchase of this tup and will look towards keeping a number of his ewe lambs for breeding in a couple of years.

 
Anyone who has been watching Countryfile will know the trouble Adam Henson has been having with TB (tuberculosis) in his cattle and the knock on effects it has been having on the business. Our routine cattle TB test is coming up at the end of October and we have all our fingers and toes are crossed that we have a clear test. It’s better to be safe than sorry though,  so we are making plans just in case things do not go our way. Watch this space!!

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