Brian McCracken

Cairngaver Farm

The farm has an arable area of 230 acres (93 hectares).

The farm is all grass except for a small area of Winter Barley which is used as break crop for reseeding.

Cows were out on the farm for a few hours a day from the 18th February onwards. Night time turnout was delayed due to the bad weather and took place on the 20th April.

Here the group members can be seen inspecting a new lane surface. This is made of scraped tar. When a public road is resurfaced the old tar is removed. This "scraped tar" can then be used in farm lanes. This substance will pack in and over summer will form a tarmac like surface.

Fertilizer Usage

Brian's aim is to make best use of grazed grass. Despite clearing out all his silage stocks last winter (due to increased cow numbers) Brian has been able to increase the area of grazed grass offered to the cows and has only needed to take two cuts of silage this year. Because the cows are being grazed at a lower stocking rate he has bee able to significantly reduce his fertilizer input. Brian's target cover for the grazing area during the early summer was only 2000 kgDM/ha

As you can see from the table opposite no fertilizer was sown during the period from the 8th May - 16th June. Brian had originally hoped that he would have a 10 week period during which he would sow no fertilizer on the grazing ground. However poor growing conditions and a falling cover forced him to sow fertilizer two weeks before the target date of the 1st July.

Fertilizer savings due to the lower input system have amounted to around £1,000 so far this year.

Brian also said that the swards suffered from yellowing and were liable to seed at a very low height. Some members of the group suggested that it might be more prudent to reduce fertilizer for several months instead of trying to do without it altogether for 10 weeks.

Future Changes

Brian has moved his calving pattern 6 weeks later this year. No cows will calve earlier than the 1st November. From that day until New Years Day, there should be about 100 cows & heifers calved with the remainder calving before the end of February. Due to the delay in calving and the tight pattern Brian will be able to stop milking for two weeks holiday in mid-October. Brian is committed to producing as much milk from grass as possible and hopes to reduce his concentrate inputs.

He is now considering whether he should go fully into "Spring Calving" taking into account his location, land suitability, cow breeding policy and any future seasonality of milk payments. This question was discussed by the group with a range of possible courses of action being suggested.