Hay & Straw
The prolonged hot and dry weather is starting to cause real damage to some farm businesses, with light land farms, being livestock, mixed or arable, really taking a hit. Very low carry over stock from last winter and little grass growth since mid-June have resulted in hay and straw markets rocketing. Whilst the high prices are nice if you are a seller, we have to question the sustainability of sending this fodder to livestock businesses in the West of the UK at such constantly high prices. Surely our new agricultural policy post-Brexit will allow for a return to headage payments to keeps beef herds, and perhaps even flocks, viable in the less favoured areas of the UK.
It goes without saying that we are actively looking for feeding straw and hay in big square bales for clients throughout the UK.
Grass Seed
We envisage a busy time for grass seed and catch/fodder crop seed when the rain finally does arrive. We would urge you to place your order despite the dry weather, so that seed can be delivered in a timely manner. New leys that delivered their yield early in the year, when moisture was available, have made some of the older leys look very tired. As we all know, grass seed is always a good investment!
We, of course, have grass ley mixtures, straight grasses, turnips and rape (and mixtures thereof) here ready for immediate collection or delivery.
We are trialling fodder beet this year for out wintering cattle at Foxley. So far so good……
Fertiliser
A return to dearer fertiliser has been an unpleasant surprise after two years of what manufacturers say are unsustainable prices. The European CO2 gas shortage was a direct result of ammonium nitrate plants being moth balled, hence we now have to get used to considerably higher prices.
Guide prices* at time of writing
| CF Nitram | £244 |
| Lithan / Pulan | £234 |
| Granular Urea | £264 |
| 0.20.30 | £270 |
| Quality Spanish ASN (26N + 37So3) | £244 |
| Quality Spanish 27N + 9So3 | £226 |