A Social Catch Up

This month we have been busy clearing out some of the sheds the cattle were housed in over the winter. All this FYM is carted out to the fields, to be piled up and left to decompose a little over the next 6-7 months. This is then spread on the grass in the spring next year.
We have also been busy making silage and hay to feed to the cows, sheep and young stock over the coming winter. It has been a bit of a stop start operation in-between the wet days. We try not to put too much wet grass into the silage clamp, because this effects the fermentation of the grass and reduces the quality of the silage. The silage clamp at Lochty is quite full, and the one at North Baldutho will need to be topped up when we do the second cut around mid August. The hay has also been quite difficult to make this year, with not a lot of sunny and windy days to help wilt the grass. We did in the end manage to make 800 round bales of hay, we have left them out in the fields for now, to try and stop them from heating.
Robert has been busy spraying the conventional crops to try and prevent diseases getting established, a disease called rust has been a particular problem this year.
We clipped the early lambing ewes and hoggs this month, to prevent fly strike and help the general welfare of the ewes and hoggs.
All the stock bulls are now out with the cows to mate, and all seem to be working well! We will keep a close eye on them for the next few weeks, in case there any problems.
An important event in the farming calendar, is the Highland Show held at Ingilston outside Edinburgh, which most of the farm staff like to attend. It’s a chance to see new machinery and products, the of Scottish livestock, and of course, a social catch up.