I have my ghost-writer employed writing this article as both the FG deadline and bTB testing wait for no man.
April seems to have flown by. For the first two weeks it felt like we hardly turned a wheel, but the latter half certainly made up for that.
Typically, the Cheshire weather systems have given us those windows which are slightly shorter than wed like, but which have to be grasped with all hands to the pumps, or rather all bodies to the tractors.
Slurry has been applied to RB209 standards, maintenance to electric fencing for our curious heifers is complete and the cows are now out 24/7.
Land has been ploughed, subsoiled and sprayed, to enable drilling the last of the maize yesterday, before bTB testing today.
We try to get vaccinating done at the same time as bTB testing to try and make some productive use of it all.
With our livestock numbers, a test amounts to four whole days of work, so its good to think we get some extra return from it.
I recently read that the long-awaited cattle bTB vaccines, in their trial stages, are said to be between 70-80 per cent effective, so may not be quite the panacea in their current form.
We are in a wildlife-control area and I have also heard that Cheshire is experiencing some of the lowest levels of positive bTB cases in many years.
However, the scheme has recently come to an end so I fear the progress gained may be reversed if nothing replaces the control measures.
Grassland management has certainly been interesting this last month, with seemingly equal amounts of time praying for it to start growing and then wondering what on earth were going to do with it all.
Plate meters, electric fencing and experienced eyes have all been significant in managing the grazing tightly thus far. Early heading grasses have been silaged with yield and quality both looking good.
Looking at AHDBs milk price tracker, from May 2022 to December 2022, the farmgate price increased by an average of 11.18ppl.
This then dropped by an average of 6.55ppl between January 2023 and April 2023 a drop of 58 per cent to the farmer with more significant drops being announced for May 2023.
When I compare our own costs with what I see happening to retail prices, the farmgate prices seem out of kilter with what the consumer is paying.
One pint of semi-skimmed milk in the major supermarkets back in May 2022 was 65-70p, reached a high of 95p, and is now 90p, a drop of 6-7 per cent, not 58 per cent.
We must hope the huge volume of Coronation cream teas consumed in King Charles name will help to remind people how delicious our home produced food is and that our new King continues to champion sustainable British agriculture.
