Thriving cattle shadowed by global pressures

From calves and cover crops to fertiliser shortages and solitary bees, George Hosford makes it clear that farming life is rarely confined to a field

To the right are some of our handsome two-year-old beefies, relaxing among the horse chestnuts in the meadows near the Stour. They have had a winter spent on cover crop, where they put on weight by an average of 600g (one and a half pounds) per day since December, with no supplementary feeding. The mixed species grazing and moving onto clean ground every day has done them well. Since going onto grass, the growth rate has increased to 2kg per day. How much grass must they eat to achieve that? Some of them are very nearly finished.
Meanwhile, two groups of cows and calves are outside enjoying spring grass, with four laggards left indoors who just will not get on with producing a calf. In one group there is a sad little character, now called Basil, who lost his mum soon after he was born. He has been receiving a large bottle of milk daily since then, and is expected to pinch further milk off other cows, which he is managing with some success, as you can see.
Some of them seem to care for him, with the odd lick and a rub, although they are less happy if they see him actually helping himself to milk.
However he has worked out ways to do this surreptitiously, either hiding behind another calf who is already feeding, or else by the more risky ‘between the back legs’ technique, which does present hazards with consequences …
In another field, below, Mr Red finds himself in the company of 14 beautiful heifers, herd replacements for next year, sitting among a sea of cowslips.
In such company, he really should consider himself in heaven.

Spring crop sowing has progressed well: the wheat, oats and barley have all emerged and are growing well, but are desperate for a drink. As I write, we have at last managed nearly half an inch over the last few days, which should help. Last week Will sowed the millet, generally only sown once we get into May to avoid frost risk. We still have winter bird food plots to sow, but will hold off as long as we dare – later germination means that flowers and seeds will hold on for longer into winter.
The last few weeks have been a riot of spring colour as first the bluebells appeared in the woods, rapidly followed by the oilseed rape turning bright yellow, now so tall you can easily lose a class of school-children in it. The autumn-sown phacelia looks lovely, especially after a shower followed immediately by evening sun. I sent the drone up for the phacelia, and when I swung it round a lovely rainbow popped into view, not visible from the ground as it was masked by trees (above). We will harvest the phacelia to use in our seed mixture for next winter’s cover crops. The plot to its left is winter vetch, and the rest of the field has been planted with an assortment of other species to add to the mix, including buckwheat, gold of pleasure (camelina), spring vetch and peas.

We’re in a jam
And what of next year’s fertiliser? Farmers (well … everyone, let’s be honest) face a very uncertain future. Once this year’s fertiliser has been used, thoughts soon turn to next year’s supply. And boy do we face a problem, all due to the folly of idiots making war without a plan.
If you’re one of those who think we can do without it, and that organic farming can feed the world, please think again. The world’s human population long ago passed the level which could be sustained organically. As I was explaining to a group of school children only last week, the exploitation of fossil fuels over the last 80 years has led to a disproportionate rise in world population. Please see the graph above. We really are in a bit of a jam. We are consuming the family silver at an alarming rate.
The big question is how do we wean ourselves off this path? Regenerative farming seeks to improve the health of our soils, to make them more productive, and to reduce reliance on synthetic fertiliser and chemicals. But we can’t do it entirely without nitrogen fertiliser: we would have to keep a great many more animals in order to feed our crops exclusively with animal manure. Conventional crop farming is on a treadmill of ever-increasing dependence on fertiliser, and the chemicals needed to counteract many of the effects of that fertiliser on plants (such as susceptibility to diseases, to falling over and to controlling the weeds which thrive in heavily fertilised situations). If only the plant breeders would put more energy into disease resistant varieties, and crops (legumes) which manufacture their own fertilisers.
Coming back to today, Farmers are facing hugely inflated prices for fertiliser … but will we even be able to get any?
No-one knows. Not even the ridiculous perpetrators of the recent/current (delete as applicable at time of reading) war in Iran.
The consequences are already grave for areas of the world in different climate zones and seasonal timings. A huge proportion of the world’s ammonia (the precursor for all agricultural nitrogen fertiliser) is produced in the Gulf region, requiring as it does vast amounts of natural gas to produce it.

In the UK, most farmers expect to do deals for the following year’s fertiliser in the summer, and expect to take delivery over the following months. It is a logistical exercise, and the limited number of ships/hauliers available means that we need all that time to get the job done. With 2,000 vessels holed up in the Persian Gulf for the last ten weeks (and mounting), and ammonia plants presumably lying idle or damaged, logistics become a bigger and bigger limitation.
You might be annoyed by the apparent profiteering by the oil companies as petrol and diesel prices rose as soon as war broke out – funny that – but there is likely to be a right royal battle over who gets fuel and fertiliser for next year. And that will surely be decided by price.
Back to the farmer’s position: grain prices barely reacted to the outbreak of war, yet we had to stomach doubled fuel prices immediately, and we have no way to increase the cost of wheat or rapeseed. Their price is dictated by world markets, and for some time the view has been that world supplies are plentiful. More recently, wheat prices have climbed around £10 per ton, which of course is welcome (approx. 0.5p on a loaf of bread), more to do with a dry period in the grain-producing plains of the US than the price of fuel and fertiliser. But we wait with interest to see what happens next year. Here at home, we have already sold a proportion of our 2026 harvest, as we usually have done by this stage. Was that right? And what happens next – hold off until next year?
Watch this space.

A solitary bee
Wildflower and entomology expert Marek Nowakowski, of the Wildlife and Farming Company, came to speak to the Milton Valley farm cluster during May. He told us so many fascinating things, about solitary bees in particular (it would add at least another 15 minutes reading here if I were to report fully on these amazing creatures).
They are of far more value to crops needing pollination than are honeybees. Honeybees and bumblebees collect nectar and pollen from flowers and then mix them together into a paste that they carry back to their hives or homes in sacs on their hind legs. Pollen carried in this way is not readily distributed into other flowers, unlike the pollen carried by the hairier solitary bees (more than 200 species in the UK). They carry it dry, and readily sprinkle it around flowers as they scavenge from bloom to bloom in search of nectar, which they carry separately.
Each solitary bee builds a tubular nest of its own in the ground – or other suitable location – and lays its eggs in order along the tube, each sealed into its own cell, each with its own supply of pollen. Long after the parent’s death during colder winter weather, the new season males hatch first in spring, the larvae feed on the pollen, and then emerge so that they are ready to mate with the females as they emerge soon after. The females hatch from fertilised eggs, whereas the males hatch from unfertilised eggs. Makes one wonder about the genetic variation in solitary bee populations, where they seem to breed entirely in families. Maybe this is something to do with why there are so many distinct species.

Marek went on to discuss the importance of wildflowers in the environment, how diversity is essential, and how to optimise one’s chances of success, as the seed is expensive.
If you are hoping to establish a wildflower meadow or margin that will last many years, it is well worth doing it properly, and investing in good seed. This will pay dividends in future years in the insect and bird life it will sustain.
Marek’s book Habitat creation and management for pollinators, is free to download and well worth a look.. There is a lot of detail on the different types of bees, and even the importance of bees’ tongues, along with a lot of other great stuff!
Keep up with George and Travellers Rest Farm on his blog at viewfromthehill.org.uk