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This time last week we were ready to start the winter barley harvest and to visit my bull customer to discuss the likely developments for the next 12 months. I thought I had done my homework; Bord Bia market reports, showed that the Italian bull price had marginally strengthened over the last year and thus there were questions to be asked about why my returns had dropped so disastrously.
In fact, I was told that Italian buying patterns had changed, that a much greater proportion of the bull throughput was now accounted for by home-produced cattle and that the main emphasis in the future after a transition period for me was going to be on steer-produced beef with a grass provenance and a much lighter carcass - around 380kg rather than 420kg.Though there was also the option of switching to a 16 month bull system which I could not sensibly take up because of the inability to use much grass in that system. I am of a generation that saw the transformational effects of hormones on British Freisians. It was the banning of the growth hormones that made me experiment with a few bulls. After that there was no going back. What the future is for our farm with dairy or continental steers, I don’t know. I will clearly have to think about it and talk in more detail to my longstanding customer.
At the same time, we started the winter barley. In raw yield terms, they were probably the best crops we have ever had. While we haven’t got the final tonnage and moistures yet, there is little doubt that we will, on average, do in excess of 4t/ac, per harvested acre. However not every single acre has been harvested as planned. We were coming near the end when some of the unbaled straw caught fire and the flames spread into the uncut crop. Between the fire brigade, who were on the scene incredibly quickly, the slurry tanker filled with water and the use of a fire extinguisher, the blaze was controlled. We lost about 3ac of standing crop but nobody was hurt and the combine was undamaged thanks to my contractor having a fire extinguisher in the cab. We’re still not sure of the cause but both the crop fire and the ending of the bull system have left a mark.
SHARING OPTIONS: