7th June 2011

The Farmer will never be happy again;
He carries his heart in his boots;
For either the rain is destroying his grain                          
Or the drought is destroying his roots.                      A. P Herbert, ‘The Farmer’ (1922)

I’m not sure whether it’s a particularly British trait, or a particularly country one, but for the past few weeks it seems that every conversation I have with friends and neighbours concerns the weather!  In this part of the country (NW Gloucestershire) arable farmers are commenting that their grain crops aren’t ‘tillering’ (producing multiple stems) and that the plants are ‘heading’ (flowering and setting seed) when the stem is only a few inches tall.  This means that there will be a much-reduced grain crop, and a shortage of straw.  At the same time, livestock farmers are bemoaning the lack of grazing available for their animals, and the likelihood of both hay and straw shortages next winter.  And all the while, prices for imported grain and soya – the mainstays of most animal feedstuffs – continue to rise at unprecedented levels.  All rather gloomy news for farmers (a term I use to include smallholders), and for the consumer (that’s us again!) who will end up having to pay more for the weekly shop – both for our animals and for ourselves!

On a more optimistic note, our lambs are growing like billy-ho!  As our grass isn’t great this season, we started to introduce creep feed for the lambs at 2 weeks – this helps stimulate rumen development.  During the first few weeks of a lamb’s life it’s able to convert food to muscle at a phenomenal rate, so it’s well worth giving them a boost at this stage, especially if they are destined to be slaughter lambs.

At 4 weeks a couple of the lambs were showing signs of dark-coloured scour (diarrhoea), which in young animals should not be ignored.  At this age, while the lambs aren’t seriously grazing (and ingesting worm larvae), and the ground has been so dry (which hinders the development of worm larvae on the pastures) the most likely cause is coccidiosis.  This is a complex disease, so we have asked a veterinary expert on the subject to write an article specifically aimed at smallholders.  The article looks at farm history and lamb management, and goes on to describe symptoms, treatment and the advisability of using prophylactic (preventative) treatments.  This article has kindly been supported by Janssen Animal Health (coming soon).

We’ve been battling against weeds in the paddocks this year; unfortunately there is a piece of neglected land upwind of our smallholding, meaning that it’s an annual task as each year we receive the windblown seeds from this weedy plot.  Ideally, we’d prefer to manage our grassland on an organic basis, without the use of chemical herbicides – this is of course quite possible, and in most years we control weeds by regularly topping the pasture, which also maintains the sward at the optimum height for grazing, and hand-pulling weeds.

However, after a few years the docks, nettles and thistles (creeping and spear) become more problematic, and we resort to chemical control.  Dressed in overalls, mask, gloves and goggles, we individually spot-spray all the weeds; we use Grazon 90 – which is specifically formulated for this job, and has a ‘no-graze’ period of 7 days.


There are some real nasties that cannot – indeed must not be controlled by spraying:  ragwort (right image) and hemlock.  Both of these weeds are deadly poisonous to all livestock (ragwort is a cumulative poison, whilst hemlock will kill instantly – and it only takes a mouthful) but have a bitter taste so that grazing animals will usually shun them.  However, once crushed or wilted, the taste disappears and they become palatable, so the only way to deal with these plants is to dig them up, root and all, and then incinerate them.

For more information about plants that are harmful to livestock, see our Quick Guide to Poisonous Plants.

So, all in all, May was a rather busy month – but we still managed to find time to go to the Royal Welsh Smallholder & Garden Festival 2011 with Adam Henson to promote our DVD series.  You can see our brief report and photo gallery here.

www.smallholderseries.co.uk