The rainfall measured at Wallmead for the first six months of this year came to 328 mm, marginally more than the 315 mm for the first half of 2009 but still very dry indeed. A sprinkling of rain every 10 days or so has kept the grass green so that the cows have something to look forward to each day and we were also able to make enough grass silage to fill the big thousand tonne clamp at Wallmead. The grass we grow in this country is quite shallow rooted. As the cereals we grow, wheat barley and oats, have all been bred from grasses they are also shallow rooted. This means that they are prone to drought and the yields this year are likely to be considerably depressed unless we have good long showers of steady rain in July. Maize on the other hand was traditionally grown in much warmer climates and has only been developed for planting in this country for the last 30 years or so. It is deep rooted and likes a hot dry summer. We therefore hope that by the end of September, when we cut the forage maize, we will have a good quantity to put in the clamps. Last year's crop was good. We are still feeding it so there will be a small overlap of continuous maize silage from one year to the other.
All our cows and heifers are inseminated artificially and there is an ongoing programme to find the best bulls to improve the genetics of the national dairy herd. We have been co-operating with Genus, who are responsible for our breeding programme, by using unproven bulls' semen and then measuring the physical characteristics of the heifers which come into the herd about three years later. The first batch of five have come out below average so it looks as though their trial bull father is not going to be successful. There is obviously very little advantage to us in taking part in such programs unless the genetics of our own herd are going to be improved. However these things have to be done by trial and error and we are all part of the process of improving the British dairy cow. The top bulls become as famous and expensive in the world of dairy cows as stallions are in the world of racing.
I find that the world of an animal behaviour is truly fascinating. As we do not have any house pets my observation is restricted to the semi-domestic animals which we farm and the wild birds which inhabit the valley near to us. Peter knows the 180 dairy cows personally though they no longer have names. They are identified purely by the white number which is freeze branded onto their black backsides when they are small. The process is painless. Those of us who work with these large animals all the time are not frightened of them although we have to treat them with some respect if they get restless in the yard. The other day I was walking across a large field with a townee and about 50 large steers and heifers came to investigate us. I was surprised at quite how frightened he was. They were merely being friendly and curious and, as we did not have a dog with us, caused us no problem at all. I'm stupid enough to feed four feral farm cats each morning. Controlling their potential population explosion is quite tricky as I cannot get within about 5 meters of any of them. I hope that they are spending most of their time controlling mice in the farmyard rather than decimating the local blackbird population. Indeed there seem to be fewer blackbirds in the garden this year but this has meant that our un-netted redcurrant crop has been prolific. To most people Rooks are rather boring but the colony who nest in the Alders along the Nadder here have a fascinating, ever changing, communal life. They glory in strong westerly winds which inspires them to perform an amazing aerial circus. They seem to be driven by sheer joy in flying: natural hang-gliders.
Going back to grass I notice that the grass in the garden of the villa we rented in Majorca was quite different to ours, tough and springy. It was being regularly irrigated but cut with an ordinary mower. No doubt somebody will be able to tell me the Latin name for it. In some of the fields there we saw large areas of photovoltaic cells set in the ground at a 45° angle facing south. As our climate gets warmer we too may get electricity companies knocking on our door wishing to install similar batteries of energy gathering equipment. So far we have merely considered the possibility of putting a small single wind turbine about 15 metres high at Haygrove to reduce the electricity bills at the cottage and feed surplus energy in to the grid: the wind speed on top of the hill there is probably over the necessary threshold of 6 cubic meters a second. In order to encourage renewable energy and reduce our dependence on oil you can now be paid for producing electricity for yourself!
We farmers have always concentrated on producing food and promoting wildlife. Increasingly our role will be include promoting carbon positive schemes but even a single wind turbine could cost over £50000. What about harnessing the unpredictable flow of the River Nadder?
Martin Shallcross