Light brush from Cyclone Dovi – Graham Smith

Every season is different and so farming is always a moving feast of jobs and planning. It never fails to keep me interested and motivated to anticipate the next required moves. With three cuts of silage in the pit, followed by some baleage before it got too dry, I feel reasonably secure against the vagaries […]

Spring is here – Graham Smith

Spring has sprung and not before time. Calving has been over for a week, 3/9/21, as I write this. Bringing calving forward five days has given me a good head start on last season but has put pressure on feed available. Growth rates of 11 kg DM/ha through late winter, July / August contrasted with […]

Rocketing ahead – Graham Smith

In my last blog I was talking about getting a third cut of silage. Well, the weather was good, so I started filling the second pit. I then managed a fourth cut, which I baled as it was off half the saved area. I saved the rest as standing silage and am just grazing the […]

Waiting for rain – Graham Smith

The way things are going it is going to be a long summer. Feels like it started last November! My rainfall records show last year as the third driest on record, with annual rain 300 mm below the average. Going back to 1992 my records show a year like this about every 10 years on […]

Dry weather strategies – Noldy Rust

Welcome to 2020. The beginning of a new year and all the promises, plans and New Year resolutions that we are all bound to keep and break, some of us more one way than the other. I find the Christmas season is always so enjoyable, with so much happening throughout December, culminating in a very […]