I won’t go on too much this month about the farming crisis as there is little new to say. In the dairy industry, Milk Marque members are eagerly awaiting the outcome of the MMC report on Milk Marque’s activities. The dairy trade have forced the MMC inquiry because they want to prevent Milk Marque being allowed to process milk.
It is very important that Milk Marque be allowed to go into processing so that we, as members, can obtain a better price for our milk. We are often being told that we should get better at marketing our own produce, so this seems to be the right way forward. Naturally the dairy trade are against Milk Marque because the trade want to continue to drive the milk price down.
I was chatting to Jane the other day, and she was concerned that I had given the impression last month that she was against farm subsidies. As she reminded me, she feels that subsidies should be directed to helping small farmers, rather than giving huge amounts to large farms and estates who don’t really need it. This of course is a view held by many in the west country. The problem is what is a large farm? I believe it is a farmer who has more acres than me!
Jane has also said that the problem is the small price that the farmer gets compared to what the consumer pays in the shop. Jane is, I know, concerned about the waste in natural resources as well as economically in transporting food huge distances around the country, rather than selling locally what is produced locally. A view shared by a friend of mine.
At last we have some decent weather (probably when you read this it will be raining again). which enabled us to get the stock out just before the end of April. We planted some turnips in early May for the cows to graze in July.
We made our first silage on 1st May which came in nice and dry. Having made a cock up with the weather for the past two years I was pleased to get it good this year. The silage ground has now had an application of fertiliser and slurry ready for the second cut, hopefully at the end of June. Talking of slurry spreading I learned last week that it is not a good idea to attempt to undo a slurry connector when it is under pressure!
We have now started drying cows off ready for calving from July onwards. This is the cow’s annual two month holiday when they build up their body reserves ready for calving and their next lactation.
I hope we can now look forward to a good Summer.