Early harvest, fuel costs down, yields beat expectations … but another wave of TB positives has overshadowed everything for James Cossins
All images: James Cossins
Here at Rawston Farm, harvest came to a close in the middle of August – one of the earliest finishes we’ve known. The hot dry weather meant that very little drying of the grains had to take place, resulting in a considerable saving in fuel costs to keep our produce safe in store. Mechanical interruptions were kept to a minimum, too, due to good crop conditions during harvesting. We did have an issue with the combine which meant losing a day when a broken part had to be sourced from Germany. The yields were above expectations, in spite of the drought conditions during the growing period. The winter-sown crops yielded well, but the spring crops, such as the barley and the beans, were much more variable, with some fields disappointing due to the lack of moisture.
The other disappointing factor this harvest is the low prices for all of our combinable crops: it seems that there is an abundance of good crops world-wide, leading to an over-supply and hence the lower prices. Here in the UK, the yields have been very variable, with the Midlands being badly affected. Normally in years with poor yields, we would expect higher prices to compensate, but it seems not this year.
At the time of writing, the rain has finally arrived – too late to help the harvested crops, but it will hopefully revive the grass and ease the shortfall faced by many livestock keepers in recent months. We are also turning our attention to sowing our oilseeds and grass seeds, now that the moisture is available to get them growing.
TB update
During harvest we also had to fit in our 60-day TB test, with not only the regular skin test but also the gamma blood test on all cattle over six months. The test took up most of one week, with the afternoons and evenings left free for harvesting. We also managed to give all the high-risk cattle their first bluetongue vaccine, recommended by our vets to prevent milk drop in the dairy cows. The results from the TB skin test were encouraging, with just one inconclusive animal, so we waited for the blood test results in a positive mind … only to find that there were 28 positive cases.
Obviously we were very disappointed with the results, which included 20 milking cows and both of our Aberdeen Angus stock bulls. It took two lorries to take all of them to the abattoir.
As I write, the official results have just been received: there appears to be no evidence of TB lesions in the carcasses.
Yet all we can do now is hope that the next 60-day skin test can give us a better result.
I have been contacted by other farmers in a similar position, in absolute despair at the circumstances. I can only reassure them that they are not alone in this thoroughly desperate situation, with just the hope that eventually we will go clear one day … but it’s difficult to see when.
I should add that farmers do get compensated for the loss of the animals – at the tax payers’ expense – but this does not make up for the loss of milk value. We are, as an industry, pressing the government to roll out a TB cattle vaccine to protect our animals. In Dorset, the NFU has set up a TB advisory group to look into how we can help fellow farmers with TB issues and to see what further trials and controls can be put in place to reduce the incidence of this disease.
I’m sorry to close on a negative note, but it’s been a frustrating month.
James
