In case you are wondering why last month's farming matters was rather short, it is because the editor did not turn the page over. At least that is what he told me, it could be that he felt it was such rubbish that it was not worth printing. I can't remember exactly what I did write, so you haven't missed much.
This month I am attempting to type it out and then e mail it to Phil so there is no telling what it will turn out like. It is surprising what we simple farmers can do if we put our mind to it. We are told that to survive in business in the modern world we must embrace modern technology. We now use the computer to calculate the amount of feed for the cows. We have a link between the computer and the milking parlour so that the computer can tell the parlour how much feed to give each cow and then the parlour sends back the milk yield to the computer. Later this month we are going a stage further and installing a programme that will send our milk records via e-mail to our milk recording company. We collect milk samples from each cow and send off to them. When they have tested the samples the results are then sent back to our computer via e-mail. We can also use this programme to apply for cattle passports as well as keeping a record of all cattle movements and a record of all medicines used. With all the paper work that has to be done these days in order to comply with ever increasing regulations, hopefully this programme will be beneficial. It will be interesting to see if it all works, and no doubt there will be a few problems to start with.
The GM debate has hit the headlines again this week with the apparent accidental mixing of GM rapeseed with non-GM seed, which has been planted on 600 farms in this country. I have mixed feelings on the subject, on the one hand as a progressive farmer I should not be against change, and I have no idea whether or not it is harmful to the environment, but if the consumer does not want it then we should not grow it. The problem for farmers now is many supermarkets want an assurance that the produce we supply is GM free, but we can't always give that assurance because we don't know.
At the time of writing this (23rd May) the weather is very catchy and not ideal for good silage making. Fortunately more by luck than judgement we made our silage in near perfect conditions on the 13th and 14th of May. Those of you who look over the hedge at what we are doing will know that we don't always get it right, in fact we have been known to get it very wrong so it is pleasing to get it right for a change.