Farm Diary

It's tempting to start thinking of applying a little fertilizer on the grass, but I need to wait and see what the first week of February brings before getting carried away.

The milk is edging up again, now that we are starting to calve down the spring cows. Beef cross calf prices are good, and they are very strong and healthy calves; mostly Belgian Blue crosses, with some Angus crosses.

We have had long meetings on the farm over the last few months, grappling with how we cope with the new NVZ (Nitrogen Vulnerable Zones) regulations.

We shall be required to increase our slurry storage dramatically in order to comply with the 'closed' period, where we will be unable to spread slurry on the land for several months in the autumn/winter period.

The choices available are; build more slurry capacity, put in a separator so that the solid part of the slurry can be transported as dry muck to the maize field leaving only the liquid to store, build a bio-digestion plant to produce electricity for the grid from the methane, separate the 'digestate', so that the solid muck goes to the maize fields.

This ranges from very expensive to very, very expensive, to complex and very, very, very expensive!

For full feature see West Sussex Gazette January 30