A month on the Farm

by Libby and Lisa Buchanan

We are praying that by the time you read this, the weather will have broken and at last sweet, life-giving rain will have fallen again. Meanwhile, we are having to give Winter feed to the cattle in the field, which is not going to help the finances. Most of them are having hay rather than silage because you can shake it around the field so they don’t all stand in one place, and it doesn’t go off. The only ones having silage are the young boys who we need to make sure don’t lose condition. They are all coping well, but you can see they are yearning for something green and luscious.

Happily, our late calvers have finished and the calves are fantastic. We did have to get the vet to the last one because we could see she had started calving, but nothing was happening. We checked that the calf was correctly presented and all seemed well, but she wouldn’t push and it appeared the placenta had started to come away – which is very bad news. Amazingly, thanks to a terrific vet and the calving jack, which is a brilliant device which literally jacks the calf out in extremis, all was well and we have another gorgeous bull calf whom Mum has named Romeo – here’s hoping!

Last time, we told you about our carbon calculation and it appears we are nearly net zero. We are just so excited – hedges, trees, livestock and soil management really make a difference. But we aren’t finished yet! We are going to transition – gradually - to a new system on the farm called mob grazing, which means we graze the cattle intensively on small areas but move them often in an attempt to mirror how cattle would behave in the wild. We will also be outwintering some of the stock, feeding them hay should they need it. The trick of the system is to leave behind lots of vegetation, not to eat every area tight, which builds the health of the soil and the strength of the root system, and ultimately that means more biodiversity, more organic matter in the soil and a healthier, more sustainable farm – both environmentally and, crucially, financially. We shall be reliant on electric fencing to break the fields into small paddocks, which we loathe but it will be a price worth paying. We have so much to learn about this approach, but it is hugely exciting and fills us with hope.

So now, all we ask of you is to practise your rain dance – what we need is gentle, constant rainfall...Thank you!