Latest news with #winterfeed
BBC News
5 days ago
- Business
- BBC News
Ringmer dairy farm 'struggling' with grass feed shortage
A Sussex farmer has said she is already using winter feed stocks to feed her 170 strong herd of dairy cows because of unseasonable Farnes, who owns and runs Downsview Farm near Ringmer in East Sussex, told BBC Sussex the farm was spending about £70 a day on using winter feed bought in from the South West because "there's hardly any grass outside".Ms Farnes blames dry spring weather on the lack of available grazing for herds in their fields. Her comments come as BBC Farmwatch hears the stories of farmers across the UK. "We've already started using our winter feed because that's all we can do, we have to feed them," she said."We get our extra sileage from the West Country - at the moment it's £25 a bale plus an extra £10 a bale to haul it here and we use about six bales a day, but come the winter when they're in all the time it will be a lot more than that."It's going to be an expensive winter this year." Kate Hobden, a herdsperson at Downsview, said: "We milk about 100 [cows] and we calve all year round. It would have been 120-150 but less is better, we can do them better and the lack of feed is a massive thing."Every farmer is struggling with that at the moment." The farm also credits its diversification into in-house ice cream production for saving the business. "If we didn't do the ice cream, we wouldn't be here", Ms Farnes said.
RNZ News
03-06-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
Drought followed by wet autumn leaves farmers with 'hard decisions' on feed
Farmers in regions hit by summer drought are heading into winter with mixed feelings after a wet autumn, Federated Farmers says. File photo. Photo: RNZ/Sally Round Drought conditions marked the end of summer for Northland, Taranaki , Waikato, Horizons and Marlborough-Tasman. As a result many farmers used additional supplementary feed to keep cows in milk. Federated Farmers Waikato president Keith Holmes said "some hard decisions" were made in autumn, with many local farmers using feed allocated for winter cover, and then having to start the dry-off process in April - about four weeks earlier than usual. He said that was a "particularly tough call" with the $10 dairy payout. The whole Waikato was now green, he said, "but not all of that is grass, so some farmers remain in drought mode. The majority of people are heaving a sigh of relief but there are still some who are desperately waiting for a bit more warm weather and a bit more rain, to get the cover before we go into winter." Northland president Colin Hannah said the region had had a "mixed bag of extremes" over the past few months, but too much rain was now causing problems for some. He said one Northland farm had been under water five times in the past few weeks. "Other farmers say the rain came at the right time and they're set up for winter. Not all farmers will be impacted. Those that used up some of their winter feed because of the drought, at the point with a bit of urea, probably most of them will get by. But it could bite us in about August, is my basic gut feeling." But he said, warm temperatures meant things should come up "pretty quickly" and farmers should have enough winter feed. "They're going to have a bit of a blip, but I think they'll get through it in the north. If we don't, we'll just have to resort to palm kernel, PK, that dreaded thing!" But he said one silver lining was that palm kernel was relatively cheap and plentiful right now.
