Don't go blaming cows for climate change, Boris!
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From the Farm by Victoria Ballantyne
I was going to write about my thoughts on COP26, but there has been a lot happening on the farm and I’m sure folk are more interested in this.
However, I’ve just heard Boris blaming cows again, so I want to make a few points before I continue.
UK sheep and cattle (beef and dairy) contribute 5.7 per cent to UK green house gas (GHG) emissions (UK Gov data). This does not include any carbon taken out of the atmosphere through soil sequestration.
One person going vegan for a year would save 0.8 of a ton of CO2 emissions. One transatlantic flight (per passenger) generates 1.6 tons.
More than 80 per cent of Scotland's agricultural land is grass or rough grazing unsuited to crop production. You will often see land use quoted as an argument against meat production, but it assumes all land is the same. Clearly is it not.
October was another good month and should set us up well for tupping at the end of November. We will soon start focusing on the ‘golden 20 days’. This is the 10 days before tups go out and the first 10 days of tupping.
Getting nutrition right then is key to a successful scanning. We also have about 250 lambs still, which are now on turnips and will hopefully reach peak weight in the next few months.
We have pregnancy scanned and weaned the calves for the year with pleasing results. Sixty-one of 63 cows to the bull were in calf (97 per cent) as were 23 of 26 heifers.
The three empty heifers were a bit disappointing, but we had kept more than we needed and the bulls were only out for eight weeks so this is still a good result.
The calves have remained outside at grass and we feel this is much better for them as it reduces stress. The cows were moved onto wintering areas and are getting silage and straw.
We have also bought in nearly 80 weaned calves, both privately and from the mart. These were more expensive to purchase this year, but we hope we can make money from them on our low cost system.
We now begin the long journey through winter. We continue to look for better ways to winter the cattle and will be trying out a number of different things over the next few months.
We weigh all our calves and cows at weaning. The calves' weights are adjusted to the industry standard of 200 days, even though they were only 165 days old.
This allows us and others to compare across years, systems and farms. They averaged 271kg (200 day weight) to 662kg, so a cow efficiency of 41 per cent.
The cows also held condition well over the summer and will go into the winter with plenty of warming fat depth.
There were a number of cows that didn’t go to the bull and have since been sold. These cows did not pass the four T’s test - teets, toes, teeth and temperament.
The first three are important for the welfare of the cow and calf, whilst anything bad tempered is sold as we can’t risk our safety or that of those who help us.
I went to London early last month for a Nuffield Farming UK scholarship interview. Despite my nerves I was delighted to find out I have been successful.
I’m really looking forward to attending the annual conference in a few weeks and starting my 2022 scholar journey – more about this next time.
Victoria and Jason Ballantyne run Clynelish Farm, Brora.
