FARM DIARY

Our emergency calf shelters built from straw bales and ply-wood have been fine in the dry and bright sunshine, but could be compromised in prolonged spells of wet weather; I can only hope that following the release of Kent and East Sussex, that West Sussex will be free to move animals again within a week or so.

I took the decision to cut a few acres of maize last week in order to start putting some of it in the diet, and to ensure that we did not eat too much grass silage; throwing the maize to grass ratio out of kilter for the winter months.

It is still ten days or so from being ready, and is very green indeed after all the rain this summer. The cows are tucking into it though, and I hope that it will lift the milk yield, as the cows are not milking all that well (a common problem this autumn as people wait to harvest their maize).

Foot and Mouth seems to be tightly controlled in the small area in North Surrey, but 'Bluetongue' is moving west. The protection zones are getting larger, and if it continues to spread, the majority of England will be within a protection zone before winter.

Cold weather should dampen down the activity of the midge that spreads this disease, but as was shown in mainland Europe last winter, this midge survives the winter remarkably well. We can only hope that a vaccine is developed within the year.

For full feature see West Sussex Gazette