Ian Pye works a 250 acre dairy farm near Preston which also grows crops for the autumn calving herd.
Old Holly is an open farm where the public can come and watch cows being milked, have a coffee in the tea room and buy an ice cream from the small farm shop. There's a strong focus on school visits. Ian is also vice chariman of the NFU Next Generation Dairy Board.
Livestock
I was fixing a water pipe when cow 398 plodded round the corner and literally tapped me on my shoulder. I ignored her but she carried on trying to get my attention. I then realized she was wanting me to open up the calving pen so she could go in and calve, so of I set off with 398 walking behind, I opened up the gates, let her in and one hour later we had a healthy bull calf. I’m sure that if she could have talked she would have just asked me, but she can’t, and that’s probably a good thing as she’d most likely tell me what she really thinks of me.
Some of our heifers have gone away to another farm for summer. We seem to have a large amount of young stock about, and since the heifers are like all young teenagers - they eat a lot for little for no real return, it was an easy decision to send them away. I can only liken choosing which farm to send the young girls to as like choosing a boarding school for a child - some are better than others, but you get what you pay for (although I hope I don’t have to pay for a ski trip as well).
One of the main points we have had to take into consideration has been bTB (bovine tuberculosis). We have never really thought twice about the problem as it simply isn’t a big issue in the neighborhood, yet looking at possible farms with TB on the doorstep it makes you think twice as you may never get these youngsters back if there’s a TB outbreak where they are. I mean you wouldn’t send a child to school if there was an outbreak of TB there would you!
We have been unsure if we are doing the right thing sending the heifers away instead of tending to them ourselves as we will miss that bonding time with them, they may not like us, but they get used to our voices and methods, and it pays off when cows like 398 feel confident enough to come and get you when they want help. Anyway I hope they enjoy their trip away and return as well-rounded individuals.
Crops
Grass has been harvested, and manures injected to stimulate the growth of another crop of grass. While the cows were allowed to graze the leftover grass in the fields we had cut for silage we took the opportunity to inject some manure into some of the cow grazing fields – only a very low rate (1000gal/acre), but this has worked well as grass regrowth rates have been noticeably better than those we did not inject, but the down side is we will have to wait a few extra days before grazing again for any residue to subside. The next job on the horizon is making some hay on the older grass meadows for the calves to eat this winter, but the forecast will have to improve before we venture out with mower again.
After harvesting grass, one of the fields was ploughed ready for the sunflower seeds, the soil was that hard due to the dry spell that several shear bolts snapped (these bolts are 20mm thick so it takes a lot to snap one), so only half the area we wanted to plough has been done. Hopefully a few warm showers will trigger the seed to germinate.
Down the far end of the farm we have installed a mobile bird hide; being mobile we can move it around the farm with the forklift if anything interesting flies in. At the moment it’s down the wheat fields near where the hares, lapwings and oyster catchers hangout, so if you are a keen nature spotter or like photography remember you can hire the hide for a peaceful day with nature - it seats two, hence why I said nature spotter and not naturist, as I don’t want any photos of that near our wheat thank you!
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