Buoyed up by a recent surge in grass growth I decided I wanted to see how much supplementary food I could remove from our cows’ diets, how much grass they would then eat and what milk yields could be sustained. Determined to make things as simple as possible this summer I am running all of…
Details
Some football clubs get average attendances of around 10,000 spectators to watch them play each week. Not the biggest crowd for a football match, but can you imagine that number of people coming to your farm to watch your cows being turned out to grass? Well that’s what happened on a farm near Gothenburg in…
Details
The recent sunshine has a put a spring in everyone’s step, including our cows. Here are a few top tunes that are on our herds’ playlist this week. Jerusalem – Sir Hubert Parry And did those feet in ancient time Walk upon England’s mountain green? And was the holy Lamb of God On England’s…
Details
Last week I hosted a ‘Reseeding Day’ at our farm, organised by The British Grassland Society, DairyCo and EBLEX. The event gave farmers a chance to learn about evaluating the productivity of their pasture following one of the wettest years I can remember and provided tips on reseeding grass and variety selection. Soil scientist,…
Details
My thanks to Stephen Lowe for giving me such a great opportunity to explain what Free Range dairy is all about on his BBC Radio Lancashire show on Sunday. We are very lucky to have a number of committed members in the county and today’s exposure for the initiative was down to Free Range Dairy…
Details
In many ways we are grateful for the all the rain we have in this country. Without it, we certainly wouldn’t be able to grow the lush green grass to feed our cows. But, I think we got more than our fair share in 2012 and we are finding ‘wet spots’ in a number of…
Details
I read a headline on the Farmers Weekly website this morning saying “Dairies must pay more to secure supplies” – a headline that has been repeated in the farming press for years, a headline that is true and one that I fully support. But, why, despite all the protests, the public support, the fears…
Details
I have been invited to discuss the objectives of Free Range Dairy with Steven Lowe on BBC Radio Lancashire this Sunday (28th April) at around 12.45pm. We have had good support for the initiative from Lancashire and I am planning a further meeting for members in the north-west later next month. I am really encouraged…
Details
Next Wednesday (1st May) we are hosting a grass reseeding day jointly organised by the British Grassland Society, DairyCo and EBLEX, at Walk Farm. Two weeks ago I was having nightmares about having no grass to show anyone and the field we plan to use as a car park being too wet to carry anything.…
Details
An article on the Farmers Weekly website highlights how milk producers supplying Marks & Spencer are supplementing cow diets with extruded Linseed to reduce saturated fat levels in milk. The article states: “Milk saturated fat levels naturally drop when cows go out to grass and increase at housing. This natural fluctuation is due to oil…
Details
Last Friday’s issue of the Farmers Guardian carried an article about plans for Free Range Dairy in the coming year. Political Editor, Alistair Driver, interviewed me at the recent event held by the APPG on Agroecology in Westminster. There is growing interest in the goals of Free Range Dairy amidst moves to encourage dairy farmers…
Details
Last Tuesday (16th April) I was invited to present my ideas for Free Range Dairy to MP’s at an event organised by the All Party Political Group (APPG) on Agroecology, in The Houses of Parliament. Also present were 10 other farmers and organisations promoting sustainable farming. For some farmers ecology does mean aggro – busy…
Details
There have been a number of useful articles published in the farming press over the past couple of months aimed at helping dairy farmers make better use of grass this spring (whenever that may be). However, I notice more and more seem to be erring on the side of caution when it comes to how…
Details
A while back I posted a story about Dutch dairy farmers being rewarded for grazing their dairy cows by the milk processor Friesland Campina. The premium farmers receive is EUR 0.50 per 100 kg milk. To receive the premium, a dairy farmer must allow his or her cows to graze outdoors for at least 120…
Details
The wet weather we had last summer, combined with the prolonged winter we have yet to escape, means that grass growth has been slow and the ‘green stuff’ isn’t as green as we would like it to be. We woke up to a white frost on Tuesday morning and didn’t feel much like spring. However,…
Details
Here is an extract from a book I have just bought from Amazon. “Since the 1870’s British farmers have had neither stability nor security. Politicians’ promises have been made and forgotten, war-time prosperity has been followed by slump or uncertainty”. “The fundamental reason is not hard to find, the public, quite naturally, prefer to buy…
Details
I found an interesting article on the website Dairy Herd Network www.dairyherd.com which provides a lot of news on the US dairy industry. Nigel Cook, the incoming President of The American Association of Bovine Practitioners, manages the Dairyland Initiative Programme at the University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine. The Dairyland Initiative was launched in…
Details
I’m digging holes and I’m measuring grass growth (or rather the lack of it) and, in the process, I’m measuring how cold it is by the numb feeling in my fingers as I walk the fields. I had a good stomp round most of our grass ground nearly two weeks ago with my trusty plate…
Details
In my quest to produce more milk form grass I am going to really try and understand more about the grass we grow and the soils that feed it. So, today, I ventured out with my spade for a bit of an exploratory dig. Now, I’m no soil scientist, but I do know that looking…
Details
Word is some folks have turned their cows out to grass already and, hopefully, it won’t be long before a lot more follow on farms around the country. Can you remember how it feels – the warmth of the sun, the smell of the earth, the sound of grass been tugged by hungry mouths? All…
Details