What are EWE doing? – event summary

There was a Farm Advisory Service Open Day on the 12th of January 2017. There was a good representation of local Caithness farmers and crofters where 32 of them attended.

Guest speakers spoke about four main topics

• Conditioning Scoring & Ewe Presentation from Kirsten Williams
• Woodland, Shelter Belts & Opportunities from Douglas Priest
• Farm Inspection Issues and Cross Compliance from Willie Budge & Cat MacGregor
• Silage Protection Systems from Rob Graze

The first talk covered the use of trace elements within the fertiliser being used on the host farm to boost productivity and reduce labour costs.

Inspection issues centred on sheep were then highlighted to the group with a quiz to provide some interaction and improved knowledge retention.

The health of the pregnant ewe was then looked at with Kirsten Williams stressing the importance of condition scoring and feeding.

 

The next two speakers were from Silostop.  The host farer has used their new silage bale wrap this year and he had no cases of Lysteria Eye in the past couple of months since feeding the silage.

 

Finally, Douglas Priest discussed the opportunities for diversifying business through woodland creation.  Reduced winter feed bills and lower flock mortality due to shelter are the key benefits.