Every conversation any of us have had this
summer is about the rain and harvest, no matter where I’ve
travelled, it’s been the same and my trip to Bolton
with one of our Council members, Robert Fitton, was no different.
The rain was torrential as we reached John
Harrison’s
farm at Moss House, Boothstow Worsley, which is just along
the road from Bolton’s famous Rebok Stadium. The ground
is very heavy and peaty on the farm and what little ploughing
had been done, showed a very black soil which will grow grass
constantly but in a year like this becomes very wet indeed.
John had paid particular attention to moving the cattle round
the fields regularly to ensure that they didn’t poach.
All of the bigger finishing cattle had been brought indoors
as they started to loose weight in the constant wet conditions.
They were dosed and brought inside as soon as the oil seed
rape, which this year had been a very good crop and had gone
to produce cooking oils, had been cleared away. The wheat
would be stored until the price improved. The smaller cattle
would be dozed and left outdoors to feed through on the grass
till next summer. On a good year the Simmentals would finish
off the grass.
 |
| Fiona Sloan discussing the finishing
cattle with John Harrison |
The first cattle we saw were 15 -17 months
old mostly Simmental cross heifers out of the dairy herds
which were bought through a local company together with a
few Limousin. “We don’t buy many Limousin any
more, says John, as they don’t finish as quickly as
the Simmental, particularly off grass” The first batch
away were Charolais and Simmental with a couple of Limousins
but John has kept the remaining Limousins on as the grade
was so poor in the early ones. When the cattle went through
the crush to go out in the spring they were all of a similar
weight but the Simmentals are now nearing finish and the
Limousins are weighing about 100kilos lighter at this stage” If
the grass had been dry all summer, he felt that the Simmentals
would have been away already. As it is, all of the rest will
finish before Christmas, when John hopes the price will have
improved. He keeps heifers in the main for ease of batch
management and he finds the Simmental cross heifers will
grow on if managed properly and make good weights before
getting fat. With the cost of barley at the moment being
so cheap and in plenty supply on farm itself, the cattle
are fed on half rolled barley and half Carrs Billington mix. “If
these were bulls, says John I’d feed them more barley
but heifers in my opinion need more protein and will eat
less so this mix is ideal for them. There were 100 bulls
being reared on the farm at any time in the past but John
found them too difficult to work with if they were outside
and there were cows around so now he rears the heifers instead.
We then headed outside to look at the cows
which John is currently using as his base cow, most of which
are pure Charolais. The original idea for using this type
of cow was their ability to maintain good condition at grass.
These cows were subsequently put to the Simmental bull for
finishing calves. However, John is now keeping the resultant
crossbred heifers as stock animals and putting them in turn
again to the Simmental bull. “The
Charolais is an outstanding cow in growth and conformation,
says John, but she lacks the milk to really produce a good
calf from grass.” With a system based mainly on grass
rearing it is important that the cows milk the calves and
I find the Simmental cross out of the Charolais does this
more efficiently than the pure Charolais cow. The grass management
of the farm is very important and the soil is so heavy and
wet that constant monitoring and movement of the cattle is
essential. In a dry year the ground maintains its grass and
doesn’t burn but in a wet year like this the peaty
soil holds the water and can be a problem as we found out
when at the end of the interview when we all had to push
Rob Fittons four wheel drive out of the field after it got
grounded!! Some years there is just no getting away from
this rain! |
