Farming Talk – November 26
October and November have been busy months for Walford farm and North Shropshire college.
Early in the month we had at least 120 visitors for our open day and some much needed sun. The students have been busy on the farm and have been working on their business and production units after attending the Farm Business Innovation event, a visit to an anaerobic digestion plant and local arable and poultry farms.
They have also had some excellent seminars by Wynnstay on calf nutrition and the TB advisory service.
On the farm the wet weather has not helped. The team had an eventful weekend early in the month pulling several cars off flooded roads.
The team have been flat out putting in sand tracks for the dairy cows which will allow us to move the herd to a grass-based system in spring. The new tracks, troughs and fencing will give us 63 hectares of milking platform and help to significantly decrease costs.
In our last update we had increased milk volumes and moved the cows onto a “cow monitor” system so that we can track their health, eating and mobility. This has been a great help with the early identification and intervention of potential foot and udder problems.
And we are taking every opportunity to improve cow performance and financial stability.
Bronwen Bray is Head of Walford Campus
