Farming News – December 2022

I can take things a little easier this month. Apart from bagging and selling potatoes, I can catch up with jobs around the farm. Potato picking finished a fortnight ago before the heavy rain. I couldn’t pick the final couple of acres until the potato shed was emptied of the wheat, which wasn’t sold until early November. Fodder beet was also harvested in mid November but the yield was variable. Trees around the field robbed the crop of water throughout the summer and autumn, resulting in a good yield in the centre of the field but no worthwhile beet around the perimeter.

For the second time this year my farm has fallen within a tuberculosis zone. One of my fields is in the 3 km zone by about 20 metres, so now I must pay for the vet to test that my cattle are TB free before they can be legally sold. For years I have tried to keep a closed herd, where I only buy in replacements from farms that I know to be disease free. Now I have to pay extra vet bills because someone nearby has imported cheap cattle into this area.