You could look at selling through orange/tb restricted markets or direct to a fattener with an AFU to sell stock. We grew some pea and barley wholecrop last year, some more this year. The cattle can't get enough of it and great for the soil and gives you an early entry into whatever you want to grow after...look forward to seeing how your under sown clover works out 👌
It’s a possibility Josh yeh, I have been let down a couple of times when selling that way in the past and it has put me off a little bit but probably worth considering giving the situation. Great to hear about your wholecrop working well. Really looking forward to give it a go 👍
Glad your doing well Gerry! Thanks for the compliment, I really do hope it all comes off. We don’t grow any maize no. Mainly because our old silage pit isn’t really fit for clamp silage any more and we always worry about how we would get it off later in the autumn if it’s wet.
About a 7 especially on Sunday when my mate was begging for my highly reliable Defender again after making more fun out of it !!!🙂👍 I think my biggest worry is my concern about the lamb market because alot of them are smaller farmer's and when the time comes to selling them, I think the market would be flooded with them and with the price of fed, fertilizer, and fuel to pay off, could this be the beginning of the end of smaller struggling farmer's?🤔
That’s the trouble at the minute Calum! I have loads of people telling me how much money I must be making out of cattle but they seem to forget that everything else has gone up a lot more that the cattle prices… I relative terms, we could even be making slightly less! 🤦🏼♂️
I think it’s the same for a lot of farmers this year especially as some are looking to cut down fertiliser use on grass land. It’s really making me re think how we operate moving forward. There’s always a lot to learn. 👍
@@baldysfarm probably cut late and forgo quality, bulk out with straw and maybe buy in stock feed spuds or fodder beet? Also thinking of stubble turnips after winter barley, graze in autumn then drill back to barley in November.
We can yes but it means keeping them for a lot longer obviously means we will use more silage that we expected. I was hoping to finish some anyway but the extra animals is alot more that expected.
@@baldysfarm not tempted to sell lighter and younger fat? Or is that not cost effective. I rear friesan bull calves soon as get them near 480kg to 500kg ish there gone.
Arable silage would be best going into a pit, rats usually ruin round bales, you could put fast growing rye grass in and still get 2 cuts of it, you could still under sow with clover, what about kale, and winter graze with cows. Tb is a nightmare the compensation is nothing compared to the hassles
I see where your coming from Richard but unfortunately our pit isn’t in a fit state for clamp. Rye grass is a good option to so I’ll have to look into it. I’m looking to reseed some old pasture but will give it a break with arable silage and then a kale or stubble Turnip type crop. 👍
Good luck with everything you do.
Thanks Matthew, hopefully it will work out fine in the end! 👍
Good luck...love the creative thinking on cropping...in ireland we have a saying "necessity is the mother of invention"
Thank you. That’s a great saying, sometimes it’s good to struggle because great things can come of it so fingers crossed 🤞
You could look at selling through orange/tb restricted markets or direct to a fattener with an AFU to sell stock.
We grew some pea and barley wholecrop last year, some more this year. The cattle can't get enough of it and great for the soil and gives you an early entry into whatever you want to grow after...look forward to seeing how your under sown clover works out 👌
It’s a possibility Josh yeh, I have been let down a couple of times when selling that way in the past and it has put me off a little bit but probably worth considering giving the situation.
Great to hear about your wholecrop working well. Really looking forward to give it a go 👍
It will all work out fine for you. You are a good planner and you will feed your stock. Do you grow any maize 🌽?. I am a 9 today thankfully 😄.
Glad your doing well Gerry! Thanks for the compliment, I really do hope it all comes off. We don’t grow any maize no. Mainly because our old silage pit isn’t really fit for clamp silage any more and we always worry about how we would get it off later in the autumn if it’s wet.
9 today last sheep lambed at lunchtime be careful James with crop silage in round bales cause rats will love it
Yeh I’ve been warned about this too. We always bait the silage and straw bales well anyway so hopefully this will help keep them down! 🐀
About a 7 especially on Sunday when my mate was begging for my highly reliable Defender again after making more fun out of it !!!🙂👍 I think my biggest worry is my concern about the lamb market because alot of them are smaller farmer's and when the time comes to selling them, I think the market would be flooded with them and with the price of fed, fertilizer, and fuel to pay off, could this be the beginning of the end of smaller struggling farmer's?🤔
That’s the trouble at the minute Calum! I have loads of people telling me how much money I must be making out of cattle but they seem to forget that everything else has gone up a lot more that the cattle prices… I relative terms, we could even be making slightly less! 🤦🏼♂️
It's a worry! I've sold 24 heifers but another chap had bought 12 more and has cancelled yesterday. Not sure how I'm gonna feed everything either?
I think it’s the same for a lot of farmers this year especially as some are looking to cut down fertiliser use on grass land. It’s really making me re think how we operate moving forward. There’s always a lot to learn. 👍
@@baldysfarm probably cut late and forgo quality, bulk out with straw and maybe buy in stock feed spuds or fodder beet? Also thinking of stubble turnips after winter barley, graze in autumn then drill back to barley in November.
What tractor are you pulling the drill with?
Pulling it with a JD 6125r. Pulls it’s okay but wouldn’t want anything smaller. Ideally bigger would be better.
Can you still sell direct to slaughter?
Or complete shut down.
We can yes but it means keeping them for a lot longer obviously means we will use more silage that we expected. I was hoping to finish some anyway but the extra animals is alot more that expected.
@@baldysfarm not tempted to sell lighter and younger fat?
Or is that not cost effective.
I rear friesan bull calves soon as get them near 480kg to 500kg ish there gone.
Arable silage would be best going into a pit, rats usually ruin round bales, you could put fast growing rye grass in and still get 2 cuts of it, you could still under sow with clover, what about kale, and winter graze with cows. Tb is a nightmare the compensation is nothing compared to the hassles
I see where your coming from Richard but unfortunately our pit isn’t in a fit state for clamp. Rye grass is a good option to so I’ll have to look into it. I’m looking to reseed some old pasture but will give it a break with arable silage and then a kale or stubble
Turnip type crop. 👍