John and Helen Ford, their son Matthew and his wife Liz, milk 500 cows through a 40 point rotary
parlour in Herstmonceux, East Sussex. The herd is managed on a seasonal calving system with the
majority of the calves born in July and August. The cows are paddock grazed on the home farm and
around 400 acres of forage maize are grown along with grass silage leys and wholecrop wheat on
tenanted land in the local area.
Writing this as rain pounds against the windows, you can’t help thinking about the power of external
forces over dairy farms. The weather for one, has hugely affected this year, in terms of maize
establishment and grass silaging, and the influx of extra grass. But no one’s really responsible for
this, unless of course we take it up with the man upstairs!
Other factors influencing our year have been the infamous milk price drop, and the increase in feed
price. The global market for feed is a faceless enemy, the cold dealings of supermarkets and
processors leave a nastier taste. Aren’t we supposed to all be in this together, us Brits? And yet, if
the sympathy of friends, family and acquaintances is anything to go by, the average Brit really is on
our side, we just hope that matters enough to the increasingly faceless processors and supermarkets.
We’ve been fortunate with the feed price thanks to our policy of buying in advance, some years we
miss out on the market lows, but in years like this it really pays off. It’s been an exceptional year for
grass, and while the quality of some silage hasn’t been great, we’ve been to all corners of the county
picking up grass that people are giving away, some even ready mowed!
Our modest investments this year seem to be going well. New water and feed buckets, and hurdles
arrived shortly before the influx of calves in July, as we’re now single penning our heifers. This idea
seemed much more labour intensive when we talked about it, but the results speak for themselves as
we haven’t yet lost a heifer calf from a successful calving.
Speaking of small tweaks in procedures, we imported some small freeze brands from the USA with
the intention of branding the heifers younger, and we spread the job of branding over two days. Last
time we tried branding all our heifers in one day, which, combined with a late ice delivery, left us
squinting at some rather dodgy brands!
Despite all the obstacles, things are on the up, the cows seems to be milking well, and a mix of old
and new approaches progressively strengthen the farm. Right now calving is coming to an end, and
we’re looking ahead to getting all those cows back in calf and of course the maize harvesting!
Which takes us back to those external forces, and praying for merciful weather!