This has been a month of comings and goings. In March Matt and Liz travelled to Sweden for a wedding, but of course cows are never far from a farmer’s mind, be he home or away. While in Sweden Matt got in touch with some Swedish contacts from Delaval, and asked if they could set up a farm visit, they were then put in touch with Torps farm in Månstad. The farm had about 400 head of cows on a voluntary milking system and an automatic TMR dispenser which fed the cows every hour. They also had lots of those self-service grooming brushes that cows seem to love. The herd was made up of Swedish Reds and Holsteins, though they were not crossbred. Swedish efficiency was on display everywhere, and all the automated systems were very appealing, though the sub-zero temperatures certainly weren’t!
Safely back at home, which suddenly didn’t feel quite so cold, all the Fords were glad to host a visit from a coach-load of Austrian farmers, all of whom breed Fleckvieh cattle. This time Matt was on the receiving end of all the questions and despite the language barrier we had a very good time. We really value the exchange of ideas that goes on in visits like these. And of course the cultural differences are always intriguing, the Austrian visitors seemed very taken with the old farm house.
The house has also had a lot of attention from the Fords themselves recently. Decoration has finally finished on the “South Wing” of the house, as the accountant calls it, and Matt and Liz have now moved in. After spending their first year of marriage in a caravan, and then sharing with John and Helen for a few months, they are now very much enjoying having their own home.
The cows have also been back and forth a lot recently, grazing during the day and staying in at night. We had hoped that that after their first round of the paddocks, grazing once a day in 18 paddocks, the temperature would have risen and we’d have plenty of grass. This however was not the case, though after a brief sunny spell, and some nitrogen to help it along, there has been some growth. John is very pleased that we managed to get in 100 acres of spring oats before the rain came again, though the ground was not ideal, being a very heavy weald clay.
Our future is looking greener in some areas however, as we’re in the midst of talks with a few contacts about various green options for producing electricity. John has already siphoned off the excess heat from the milk coolers to heat the house, though this is not always considered sufficient by those who spend more time indoors, shall we say. Also, Matt’s dissertation at uni was on biogas, so as a family we’re very open to using the farm’s existing resources in a way that is environmentally sustainable but also commercially attractive. We look forward with anticipation to what the future holds in this area.