Farming in March 2010
The robots launched on 1st December with rather more temporary wiring than we would have liked (anybody know a good electrician?) but we’re now robotic! It went swimmingly until Number 88, maybe as a tribute to the late Michael Jackson, managed to moonwalk into the robot backwards. The robot knows who’s who by a transponder hung on the cow’s neck which in this case was at completely the wrong end. Flummoxed, the robot opened the gate for this unknown interloper to exit. However, the nimbleness that had enabled Number 88 to enter backwards deserted her and she became well and truly wedged. Fact: When stressed, cows poo! So after much pushing, shoving and pooing Number 88 was extricated. Thankfully, apart from this isolated incident the cows have adjusted to their new lifestyle very quickly. The cows go to the robot because they get fed. They have ad-lib food in the yard but the food they get in the robot is a bit like chocolate cake for cows, a fairly good motivator. As with everything you can have too much of a good thing and if a cow returns to the robot too soon it lets the cow straight through without feeding or milking her. We’ve been going for nearly 2 months and I now know what most of the buttons do and 95% of the cows go to the robot on their own between 3 and 5 times a day. We have a hard core slow learner group who still need reminding or perhaps they’re plain lazy or just not hungry.
We were clearing turkeys the first week in January just as it snowed. I had to pull every lorry out to the A40 with the tractor; it was just like Ice Road Truckers but with less bad language! One of our turkey sheds has just been converted for growing turkeys under an enhanced environment brand. I’m not sure what the fancy label will intimate but at farm level this means 30 windows so they can bask in natural light, down stocking and lots of turkey toys! I think having less turkeys in the shed is what will benefit the turkeys most. However, the spare space that was once turkey is now crammed with pecking points and perches. Pecking points are made up of plastic drums suspended from the ceiling; I wonder why this is so much more enhancing than the 90 plastic drinkers that have been suspended from the ceiling for the last 20 years?
The high-maintenance Herdwicks continue to live up to their name. Despite only having 7 sheep they need to be split up which means 2 Herdwick-proof fields! Roger, the ram, and three lucky ladies in one and Roger’s rejects, Weed, Thistle (aka Stumpy) and Buttercup in the other. Weed is too old to have a lamb, Thistle is now known as Stumpy as she had to have her tail amputated at great expense last year and therefore is not up to having a lamb, and finally Buttercup who is Roger’s daughter, the one and only lamb from last year.
Robert Davies
Partner, Hopes Ash Farms
Farming Fact: Agriculture accounts for just 1% of the UK’s total CO2 emissions.