Happy Solstice - The Accidental Smallholder

Posted: Tuesday 22 December, 2015

by Rosemary Champion at 12:36pm in Smallholding 4 comments Comments closed

So the year turns; we’re past the shortest day and looking forward to the return of the sun. All of us here at Dalmore wish you a peaceful, healthy and happy year ahead.

Our weather hasn’t been too bad – very mixed but not much rain and the ditches are well down. The ewes and hoggs are getting hay every morning now and are getting keener. We’ve got three wheeled and covered hay racks out so there’s plenty room for all of them to feed at the same time. The field they’re in is the driest and there’s plenty natural shelter for them. Our scanner’s got us “in the book” so I can cross that off the list and just wait for her to contact me.

At this time of year, I have to complete the flock registers for the year, which runs from 1^st January to 31^st December. I have one for each holding where we graze sheep. Barring deaths, there won’t be any further sheep movements this year, so I can get all the info on the e-document and filed. I keep a paper copy at the back door that I update every time we move sheep, then I put it into the computer periodically. I also updated my flock records in the Ryeland Flock Book. It’s the Grassroots system and I haven’t used it before but it was pretty straightforward.

I was through at the RPID office in Perth last week to sort out some paperwork. They really are a very helpful bunch of folk. We got one issue resolved and I’ve emailed one of the officers about the other, as he wasn’t in.

We had an escape from the barn on Sunday night. I had asked Dan to raise the top bar at the feed barrier as it was rubbing the back of the cows’ necks; this meant that they took a mouthful of hay or straw and pulled it back, thus wasting more. He duly did as I asked (and it has worked) but it weakened the uprights of the barrier. Well, Sunday night, Rosie demolished three and let herself out. To be fair she didn’t go far and all the yard gates were shut. Thankfully, she was happy enough to be haltered and put back in. However, when I checked before bedtime, both Rosie and Annie were out, so Dan made some repairs while I put them back in. So far, all seems to be holding up.

I’ve been reviewing the health and welfare plan for the cattle and have been toiling a bit over flukicides. We use a pour-on combined concoction that kills worms, external parasites and fluke. It’s very easy to use, especially since we have no decent handling facilities for the bull and steers at our rented grazing. An oral drench or an injectable type would be, basically, impossible to administer safely. The cows and heifers are much easier to handle and I would be happy to inject them – the few times we’ve used a drench, I’ve ended up wearing most of it.

So method of dosing is an issue; so is resistance. With the combination product, we’re almost certainly treating the cattle for things they don’t have or don’t have at a level that causes them any problems. The product we use has two active ingredients – closantel (fluke) and ivermectin (worms and external parasites). The other pour-on has triclabendazole (fluke) and moxidectin (worms and lice). Moxidectin is in the same wormer group as ivermectin, although not exactly the same. There is concern about triclabendazole resistant fluke – especially where there are sheep grazing as well.

All is further complicated by the rules around flukicides for cows producing milk for human consumption. Of course, until we started milking this summer, this factor hadn’t appeared on the radar. Some can be used legally early in pregnancy but some cannot be used at all, even in heifers intended for milk production – including the two pour-ons.

And finally, all these products have fairly short shelf lived once opened; he one we are using is 6 months. Since we only dose twice in the winter, this is basically one year so it’s likely that we’ll have more wastage and higher costs.

We aim to have two beef animals each year – either two steers or a bull and a steer, so we’ll be overwintering four males. Each gets two applications of pour-on. The two older beasts are dosed on 500kg bodyweight and the two younger ones on 250kg, so we need 300ml of product each winter. A 500ml bottle is just over £90.

I’m still researching a plan for the cows and heifers.

Bryn had his op on Thursday. All went smoothly. He weighed in at 14.9kg but came out two stones lighter (boom boom). He’s supposed to be on ten days lead exercise only but we’re finding that hard to stick to. He goes back to get his stitches out on the 28^th December.