Farm Diary

I am off to Australia tomorrow (next two columns from Oz '“ technology allowing), and when I return in 2 weeks time, I hope to find the grass green, and warm sunshine, so I can turn some cows out to grass and save some money!

We have been planning our next 12 months and the staggering increases in costs are frightening. Feed costs on the futures market are through the roof, diesel, fertilizer and anything based on oil is rocketing, with straw, wages and general inflation also continuing upward.

The simple answer is to make more silage and buy less food in, and for the first time in many years we are now sitting on several thousand tonnes of silage, much of which will be carry over at the end of winter. More importantly, and for the first time ever, most of it is maize silage.

I have also secured plenty of maize ground for next year, so we are in a position to see how much maize and grass silage we can feed the cows, with 75% of it being maize (if we choose), and then how we balance the ration with the best buys on the futures market (not that there are any best buys at these prices), and at least control costs to a degree.

Maize silage on average is cheaper per tonne to grow, has more energy, is more consistent and is more palatable than grass silage, but needs to be balanced with expensive protein.

For full feature see West Sussex Gazette March 5