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Down In Devon November 2007
Hello again. Well I've had to put away my Speedo swimming trunks and sun tan lotion for
another year, (much to my wife's relief) and retreat to the wet weather gear and a woolly hat. Having said that we can't complain, what a lovely Autumn it has been.
As I mentioned last month our cows were heavily infected with liver fluke, so on our vets
advice we drenched all the milking cows on the 10th of November, this in itself is easier said than done because the sure way to make the cows swallow the drench is to get each cow individually into the crush, grab hold of their head, yank upwards and squirt the drench back their throat with the drenching gun. This may not sound too bad, but after you've done it about 130 times stress levels are quite high!
So that the cows wouldn't re-infect with fluke out at pasture, we decided to keep the cows
in by day, the silage is down in protein and energy because it was cut so late in the summer. As a consequence of this, the milk yield is down about 300 litres a day, luckily the milk price is very good
at the moment at around 27.5 pence per litre. Unfortunately our cow cake supplier has just written to us saying that as from the 1st of December prices were going to rise by £16.00 per ton (they do say money is made round to go around!)
On the 25th of November we decided to fluke drench and winter house the dry cows, in calf heifers and bulling heifers, so everything is now in snug and warm for the winter.
I have enclosed our local market price report and our local vet's newsletter.
May I take this opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New
Year.
All the best
From Steve, Down in Devon
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