COLUMN: Being stoic and strong is all very well but we need to be upfront and honest about our feelings
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From the Farm by Victoria Ballantyne
I never quite know how to feel about this time of year. On one hand, I have only a few more B&B bookings and am looking forward to a quiet house after another busy summer.
The flip side of this is the end of long summer days, colder weather setting in and a seemingly endless damp pervading everything.
It means that winter feeding will soon start, that grass growth will dramatically slow and that we will start counting the days to next spring.
After a growthy August and September, we have good grass stocks. One of the challenges with our rotational grazing system is that the grass is usually quite lush and we have very little stemmy grass as it is grazed quite intensely several times through the summer. At this time of year, as the dry matter in the grass decreases, there is not always enough fibre in the grass for cattle and it can go in one end and out the other faster than we would like. This isn’t a very efficient use of energy and tends to make the cows quite grumbly. We put straw out as a countermeasure to give the cattle something to ruminate on and slow up the digestive process.
We’ll keep the cows out as long as we can, hopefully until the end of the month. With a short bulling period of seven weeks, we will be able to pregnancy scan the cows earlier than usual.
The timing of weaning and movement to winter areas are more affected by rain than temperature. Once the ground becomes too wet it won’t hold cattle and quickly turns to mud.
Good soil and root structures help to reduce this damage and there is certainly evidence that deferred grazing can help to keep cattle out even longer – deferred grazing is ground that is perhaps only grazed once or twice a year.
I love the idea of it, but on a small farm it is difficult to justify having ground out of action for so much of the year when there are so many mouths on farm through the spring and summer. It also requires the right type of ground.
Jason and I went to a ‘regenerative farming festival’ in Cumbria last month called Carbon Calling. We don’t describe ourselves as regenerative farmers, partly because we don’t think our land is in need of the kind of regeneration some farms require. However, it was a really interesting gathering, with lots of great speakers. It had a different vibe from most farming events, much more a festival feel, including live music, camping and plenty of the local ale available.
If you know Jason, you will know that it was very much his scene. Everyone was there to learn; it had a very inclusive feel and there was room to challenge some of the accepted thoughts, practices and culture of farming.
The panel of four very talented women who frankly and honestly explored the problem of change in farming was a highlight for me and almost every farmer I spoke to.
We’re not known for showing our vulnerability in agriculture and this has often been necessary in order to just get on and get things done in the face of immense challenge.
Although we’re represented as stoic and strong, the panel made a really compelling case for why being upfront and honest with each other about how we feel is also a strength, and that even if there is plenty of empathy and understanding in our field, we need to learn to ask for it when things are difficult.
n Victoria and Jason Ballantyne run Clynelish Farm, Brora.
