Another dry summer. Although most of us were able to take advantage of the periods of rain at the end of May and early June to cut sufficient haylage/hay for this winter. A change on last year. With the school holidays about to start, a move to more changeable weather is probably around the corner.
Near perfect spring and early summer weather. A couple of weeks ago, I was interested to hear an Australian beef farmer talking about the necessity of sharply reducing heard sizes in advance of the droughts that the El Nino will bring. Presumably Australian sheep farmers will be doing the same. Taken with the higher price
At last a little rain and the big blocking high seems to have moved. Fields are starting to green up, but a long way to go. Thankfully we are not milking cows. We weaned last week, and lambs are continuing to do well. Certainly the worm burden should have been reduced during this drought. We
Like many other farmers this years lambing had two sides to it. Sun on the backs of the ewes and lambs enabled lambs to bask in the sun, rather than drinking/eating to stay warm. This is certainly reflected in our 8 week weights. However the flip side of this has been the paucity of grass,
Lambing finished quietly at the end of April, with over 90% within the first cycle which is consistent with previous years. Lambing through April this year helped us avoid the horrors witnessed by so many others lambing through this extreme wet spring. Swamp was a common discretion of people’s experiences almost everywhere. Additionally, we luckily