Beaten by the weather.

[domsmith]

After 4 years outwintering all but the finishing stock, i have to say we have this year been totally beaten by mother nature.

My solid, well sheltered hill ground this afternoon looked liked the somme. Yesterday hurricane "Bawbags II" battered the poor souls on the hill. it has not stopped raining today, tonight it is gusting to 60mph and raining still.

I cannot get over the amount of rain we have had this autumn/winter. Serious cold and feet of snow have not worried us, but this rain is killing us! its the lack of a dry lie i think that is taking the toll.

So we are busy changing the shed to allow as many in as we can. with straw not available we will have to think out of the box. we will have 70% of the herd inside, with just 1 group of cows and calves left outside in a quarry.

Just thought i would write this after days of mulling it over, things is tough up north! (at the moment) It goes to show you should have a plan b, you cant rely on what you have done in the past, you have to think about every possiblity.

nuff said

dominic

[Broomcroft]

That's sounds really bad dom, hope it works out. We've had very little rain all year down here in Shropshire, grass just hasn't grown. Lots of people had to plough crops back in and start again. I did a patch with rye-grass and red clover, didn't rain for weeks and weeks, clover just didn't take but loads of weeds did! Funny year all round. Cold or dry can be bad, but nothing's as bad as constant wet.

[Jac]

Try moving to Wales Domsmith, you can experience that type of weather all through the summer too!

[Rob R]

We've just been beaten by the weather and brought the cows in too, or at least 75% of them. Ours is the opposite problem though, too little grass due to drought in Spring which has had a knock on effect. We had a better late summer and autumn but not enough growth to make up ground. Felt a bit sorry for the remaining cows outside last night though when the wind and rain was lashing down.

[domsmith]

60 head housed on friday. All went to plan, except on Saturday found a staggers case. It was a suprise to me, but when i think about it i should have been expecting it. Stress, change of routine, a couple of 1st calfing heifers in poor condition (thats why they were coming in!)
anyway seems ok this evening and all settling down.

we are using a simple system, the cows are bedded on matts at the back of the shed, they feed at the front. we then scrape out, by hand, once a day with rubber squeegies. took an hour this morning hoping for 30 mins when we get into it.
no bedding cost just the intial matt costs, some of which i had anyway. Few extra holes in the barn to scrape out into.
hopefully will work
dom

[Kate]

Living in Central France in a valley with clay soil has its advantages and disadvantages - one being the heavier cattle (charolais and limousin's) are normally housed in November but this year has been exceptional - we have only just bought in the cows due to calve with heifers still outside - despite rain in december making the surface poached - it is still sooo dry for us - in 2011 we had just under 600mm of rain - our average being 837 mm - in one way it's great they have been out for so long as we have a serious lack of forage and bedding straw for the winter due to the drought !
We have had the tail ends of the UK's storms over the last few days but nothing like the UK - we have had three frost's so far this winter - I am sure the weather is going to make up for it when I start lambing !! Good luck Dom !