Busy time at our farm
As we move closer to autumn we have been flat out with field work, fencing and improving the grazing platforms ready for our first autumn block calving.
We set the cows up on an electronic tag system in November with Cow Manager as we started to work with LIC International as a pasture-to-profit Monitor farm.
The combination has been really successful. We have made significant progress from last year with large drops in our feed, bedding and veterinary costs along with some much-improved fertility and milking performance.
Our milking platform is now up to 63 hectares. The cows have been scanned and we will have at least 48 calves arriving in late August with the others arriving through September.
We are hoping that our planned Monitor Farm open day will run in October, but have another set of online updates planned just in case.
The grazing platforms are flourishing and like the rest of us needing a good haircut. Our replacement Shropshire sheep are planned to come on board at the end of August with fingers crossed that we can get to some shows next year.
All of the staff are looking forward to the students coming back in September and with the rest of the college we are busy getting everything ready.
Bronwen Bray is Head of Walford Campus, North Shropshire College.
