Registered Animal Medicines Advisor & Agricultural Sales Specialist at StowAg I’m not from an agricultural background, but I’ve always lived in the countryside and I grew up with a small holding. My sister and I started breeding bantams and we had a small herd of goats which got me hooked! I spent years helping everywhere …
Year 5 into my farming career, is it getting easier…?
Simple answer is no; however, I feel a lot more relaxed about the annual cycle of ups and downs, and after 5 years at it, with countless droughts and floods I’m definitely battle hardened and most importantly the farm is building diversity and resilience.
Our first outdoor calving for a generation here at Balbirnie is complete. We managed to get the cows off kale and onto grass on the 15th March. The grass was deferred from July last year. Daily moves were planned, and due to the very wet conditions, absolutely necessary. On the worst of the days, we were moving twice daily. Calving, due to start 10th April, started as planned with few problems.
I finished my last DD article (Sept 23) by wishing everyone well for the Autumn drilling campaign – well I do not think anyone could have predicted what the weather gods were about to throw at us! A relentless wet Autumn, winter and spring have taken their toll, on crops, the land and everyone associated with getting crops through to harvest. I have never ever wished away time, but I think getting harvest 24 done, in the shed and slate wiped clean will be a welcome relief for everyone.
January 2024 Neurodiversity and oubaitori, 2 words that presented themselves to me towards the end of 2023, 2 words which answer a lot of questions to many of my life’s struggles, thankfully something that seems to have been put well behind me since finding regenerative agriculture and realising this would cure my mental health issues. …
February 2024 Water, water everywhere! I bet it turns off just when we need it! What an Autumn/Winter! The rain keeps coming, which makes you wonder if it will turn off just when we rely on it. On a positive, it is wonderful to see how well my soil copes with these extremes, with fantastic …
March 2024 February is supposed to be quiet? For those that I haven’t met before, hello, my name is Anna and I’m 4 years into farming. I grew up on our family farm but made the move to return 4 years ago and haven’t looked back since. You may have met my Dad, Andrew Jackson, …
March 2024 It feels like a very long time since my last ramblings in the October issue of Direct Driller magazine. I’m sure I’m not the only one that thought we’d never experience another winter like we had in 2019, the wettest on record at the time! While winter 2023/24 may not have seen the …
No one wants to talk about the recent weather over the last 5-6Â months, in summary it has been bloody awful and relentless for farmers and non-farmers alike and I expect most farm records have all been smashed for the wrong reasons. The topic and the big consequences that farmers have endured and suffered has certainly been one way to get people feeling pretty down, with plenty of stress and worry added into the job.Â
The good, the bad and the downright ugly is the only way I can describe the state of our autumn drilled crops as we head into the spring. Throughout the later stages of 2023 as a result of the unrelenting rain I was pitifully watching our area of cereals for next harvest diminishing by the day.
