A mini break

Well, it has been a bit of an extended mini break from this blog, lots has changed and at the same time it is all very familiar.

We lost Ebony, our Aberdeen Angus bull at the start of the year, which was very sad but meant a new arrival in the form of Ronnie, another Aberdeen Angus. All seems to be going well in that department and early in the new year his offspring will start being born.

After a nice 3 month break from calving, a few early calves arrived at the end of July, with the rush beginning with August. It has certainly slowed down a bit but we had two calves this morning so they are certainly keeping us all busy.
I have 45 calves which I feed twice a day these are the dairy heifers (ladies) and beef calves, the dairy bulls are sold to a local farmer who raises them for beef as well but we don’t have enough space for everything.

I have been lucky enough to win a TSDG (Tesco Sustainable Dairy Group) travel scholarship and two weeks ago I travelled to France for phase one which was spending time with Valorex and the Bleu Blanc Coeur Association looking at increasing the health benefits of dairy products (indeed other products as well) through feeding. Particularly incorporating linseed into the diet of the animal. It was such an interesting week, completely tiring as well and I have so much food for thought (excuse the pun) in preparation for phase two which is travelling to the USA and Canada at the end of September and the deliverable I have which is to present to the TSDG dairy farmers in November.
My subject is increasing the Omega 3 in milk through feeding the dairy cow and it is a very relevant and interesting subject to be studying.

These two little piglets (or weaners) arrived yesterday and are settling in very well, they will be fattened up ready for Christmas, delicious!

Calves coming out of our ears!

So we have decided to keep all our calves and they are keeping me very busy indeed! I feed 80 calves twice a day and we have another 70 or so weaned at a different location, which I looked after until they were weaned. We were worried about keeping everything fit and healthy with the increased numbers but so far so good (touch wood!). We had a touch of scours (the runs) 6 weeks ago, but we stopped that from really taking hold and the babies are looking healthy and strong :0)

Weather like this (going between warm and cold) is perfect for pneumonia which we really want to avoid so I have to keep an extra close eye on everything, making sure none of the babies have any breathing problems or start losing condition.

In other news, our mountain boarding season finishes tomorrow, the weather has really affected us this year, the unprecedented rainfall was not good for us outdoor activity providers!

Chris & I were also lucky enough to be invited by Tesco to the Farmers Weekly Awards at the beginning of October, these are like the Oscars of the British Farming Industry. We had a brilliant, glamourous night and were really inspired by the winners a great bunch of farmers they were. We also made it into the Farmer’s Weekly which Dad was v pleased about!
Somehow we’ve also managed to squeeze a photo shoot in for Tesco milk this month. It was pretty miserable for one of the days in the driving rain, mainly for John, the poor photographer who got absolutely soaking! It’s definitely not all glamour that’s for sure!

Love
Jo x

SOS Dairy!

Tomorrow (Wednesday 11^th July) Dad and I will be heading on a coach up to London to demonstrate our anger at recent price cuts and to support other dairy farmers who have had £60,000 wiped off their profits (or in many cases added to their losses) by recent cuts by dairy processors on the pence per litre of milk that they are paid.

To explain quite a complicated system (for myself if nothing else) dairy farmers produce milk, milking their cows twice or three times a day, 365 days year.  The vast majority of dairy farmers have a contract with a milk processor, this contract is to supply milk the farmer will be unable to leave the contract for a significant length of time if, for example, the processor cuts the milk price.  The processor, such as Arla, Robert Wiseman or Dairy Crest collect the milk from the farm usually every day, in a milk tanker and the milk is then taken to be pasteurised. 

Some of it (like ours) is for liquid milk so ends up on the shelves in Tesco in a bottle, but of course milk is not the only milk product! The milk that is collected from the dairy farms is used for all sorts of things, yoghurt, cheeses, milkshakes, butter the list goes on.

We are part of Tesco Sustainable Dairy Group which means our milk is contracted through Arla to Tesco.  It means we have to adhere to strict animal welfare criteria and we are paid using a cost tracker which means that the price of our milk is linked to how much it cost us to produce.  This is by no means gold plated but it is far better than the other contracts which are not related to production costs and are therefore liable to pay less than production and to change at short notice.

The current system leaves dairy farmers very vulnerable, as with all farming, dairy farming is not about the here and the now.  You look to the future, you are doing things now which will pay off in 6 months, 10 months time.  You look after your calves, you dry off your cows, whatever you are doing you are not doing it with the short term in mind. 

You can’t suddenly stop feeding your cows because the processor has dropped your prices, you can’t not harvest the maize for next winter’s feed because of the high price of fuel.

Also the dairy industry has had huge pressures on prices for many year. Year after year of high input costs and low prices mean that when you are faced with such a devastating drop in prices as has recently happened many businesses simply cannot cope.

And yet there is still a massive demand for dairy products, our neighbours on the continent get an average of 10p per litre more than we do.  British welfare and environment standards are some of the highest in the world (which incidentally costs more). But still the farmer, the producer, the person at the bottom of the pile gets squeezed and squeezed until there is nothing left.

This is not fair or right.

The system is broken, there are no easy or quick fit answers but I believe that fair trade should start at home.  Our dairy farmers deserve to be paid a fair price for the high quality milk they produce. 

To be paid in line with the cost of production is a start.

Good luck to all our fellow dairy farmers, together we are strong and we should be proud of our excellent industry and fight hard to save it!

 Love

Jo x

 Sign this petition to show your support for our dairy farmers and the dairy industry https://submissions.epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/6424

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