Hi Chris from Moos on Thames here.
In my last article we were getting stuck into calving, we now only have four cows left to calve so we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I also said that our silage stocks were pretty tight and we would need a kind spring.
Well we have not had a kind spring. It’s not really stopped raining through March and April. My wife jenny is sick of me complaining about the weather. Its been very challenging, we’ve had thirty acres underwater along the Thames since March and still has water on now in May. Just when the river was starting to go down and the fields dry up, we would get another deluge of rain to top the Thames back up again.
I’ve had to do a lot of 2 hour grazing’s during the day to the give the cows a belly full of grass and then get them back in again, to get them off the wet ground before they poach it to much. They’ve been out full time for ten days now, I had to keep them housed at night eating silage for as long as I could manage with the little silage I had left.
Ground conditions still are not perfect but I’m hoping we’ve turned the corner with the weather now (I write this very hesitantly not wanting to jinx it) The grass has been growing well the last two weeks. This week it grew 89 kilos of dry matter a hectare. Demand is 30kgdm hectare. But because of the wet conditions the breaks (area given to graze in a 6-hour period) have had to be bigger to allow for more trampling.
This isn’t a problem at the moment but it does mean the cows move round the farm faster and if we carry on at this speed the paddocks wont get enough of a rest period in between grazing’s. But hopefully the weather sorts it self out and grazing management becomes easier.
In other exciting news we now have pork in the vending machine. We have a selection of pork products from Padfield Porkies. They are from Seend near devises. They are a family pig farm who sell there own pork. Pig farmers have been hit the hardest by input rises and supermarkets not willing to pay them a fair price for there cost of production; so buying direct is the best way to support another family farm. We have pork pies, pulled pork pasties and sausages. All of which in my opinion taste great.
You can vote for the sausage flavour of the week on our social media. So far, we have had chilli and garlic and Cumberland. Our new vending is finished and we are eagerly awaiting delivery of it. If you have any questions please email moosonthames@gmail.com