Clover Crosse

It’s mid-March and spring drilling is done except for 34ha of peas. We are hoping to test out a Sky Easy Drill, a versatile direct drill that we hope to use for the arable, grassland and cover crops/winter feed. With the recent spell of rain I have been busy processing logs to be sold next winter and training my sheepdog pup. He’s showing great promise, he’s keen but with a thoughtful head on his shoulders: watch this space! I am due to start lambing for a friend in 3 weeks which I am looking forward to, it will be a welcome break from spring tractor work.

I have also attended several sheep related webinars, the latest being a discussion on the Smart Sheep project, which I highly recommend watching. It demonstrated the power of EID technology to facilitate management decisions, particularly in relation to anthelmintic use. Although it seems that plenty of farmers are recording data, the webinar highlighted that not many seem to be using it to its full potential – sharing data sets with your sheep vet/advisor, for example, is a great first step to making better use of data. 

Lambing is coming to a close, with only the stragglers left. The weather has been very kind and lambs look well for it. Spring drilling is done and the spring barley which followed the sheep is looking tremendous. We had high expectations for the demonstrator seed drill we had in the spring but unfortunately we were not impressed with it. I’m looking forward to getting stuck into some shearing in the next few months. 

I am making the most of a quiet period on the arable side and I am doing some shearing for a local contractor and some shepherding for other people. My sheepdog pup, Goose, is nearly ready to start more formal training and I am enjoying watching his progress, hopefully he turns out to be handy! Last week was our second NSA delivery session, the supply chain directly impacts every single one of us and rarely do you get to have such a detailed look around like we did. 

Shearing 2022 is well underway, I have managed to get several good days under my belt and find myself improving all the time. It’s great to get off farm and catching up with people. At the end of May we had our YFC Rally. Considering we are a new club this year, we held our own and won several competitions, a great day to get all members involved. I won the shearing competition at rally and will be competed at the South West Area finals at the Three Counties Show and came 2^nd. It was a learning curve and good experience to shear on stage in front of a crowd. Our fencing team narrowly missed out on first place, something we will strive for next year. I competed in the South East Region Young Shepherd competition at the Southern Shears and managed to place 1st. It was brilliant to see so many enthusiastic young people and to see everyone learning and taking so much home from the day. I look forward to competing in Malvern in July.

A hot, dry and busy month! There has been plenty of work for the dogs, albeit first thing in the morning to escape the heat of the day. I have played lots of cricket for both club and county.

At the end of the month we had our 3^rd ambassador trip followed by the Sheep Event at Malvern. It was so good to catch up again and also do battle in the young shepherds competition against fellow ambassadors Alex and Cameron!

Combining has also started in rather unconventional fashion. I have been combining OSR between 04:00am and 10:00am to keep grain temperatures low and to retain grain moisture. Yields are pleasing but quality looks to be down this year across all crops. 

Harvest has come to a close and although it was the quickest and easiest I’ve had, it did get scary towards the end with everything tinder dry. I have drilled 150ha of Phacelia, Vetch and Oil Radish for the sheep to graze in the winter, it has flourished despite the lack of rain – I can’t wait to welcome the sheep back onto the farm. Goose has had his first birthday and I’m enjoying his training and have just started using him for small jobs.

I’m sad to say that we’ve had our last organised ambassador session. We do have events planned in the future thankfully, with some of us hoping to make it to the Sheep Breeders Round Table in November and winter workshops. I’ve loved every minute and relished the opportunity to meet like-minded people with drive and passion for the industry.

At work, our cover crops have benefitted from the warm soil temperatures and rain this month. I will start grazing cover crops at the beginning of November. With my sheep farmer head on, there is a lot of winter feed there and with my arable farmer head on, there are great things happening under the surface when you dig a hole! The vetch already has root nodules containing Nitrogen as shown in my pictures, which is very exciting.