Arable
We have had a severe shortage of rain but thankfully we have finally received a decent amount. The crop yields will obviously be reduced by the shortage. We have stopped the wheat fungicide programme because the yield potential has been reduced so it would not offset the cost of the fungicide.
We have bought a new cultivator which is a 4m Cousins crumbler cultivator which will do the bulk of the cultivation in the autumn. The grain store has been cleaned so much you could eat your tea off it! This is to make sure that there are no insects to harm the grain which will be stored there.
Quail
A successful hatch of 200 quail from 300 eggs was a welcome change from the poor hatches we have had for the first half of the year. They are currently 3 weeks old and will be ready for sale when they are 6 weeks old.
Shows
We had success at the Suffolk Show achieving a 1st with our Suffolk Sheep, a 1st and Champion with our butcher’s lambs. Kersey Domino, a British Blue cow, won her class and got best British Blue in show. Mum, Dad and Alice are preparing for the Norfolk Show at the moment.
Cattle
We have been selling finished cattle live to Colchester market and directly to a slaughter house in Bedfordshire. The rain has improved the grass situation no end, we have applied fertiliser and now have adequate grass everywhere, we have even made a bit of silage.
Sheep
Dad has started selling rams, the main selling season is from July to October. We have around 40 rams to sell each year. The rams are last year’s lambs and one ram can serve up to 40 ewes. The main aim of the rams is for them to be crossed to produce good lambs for the meat trade. Suffolk Sheep along with most other breeds need shearing annually. Dad does our shearing for all 200 of our sheep. Recently the wool price has gone up by 50% and is now around £3 per fleece but that barely covers the cost of shearing.