Shropshire Farming Talk: A busy time of the year at Walford College

With the start of the new students on site, the farm, campus and estate have moved from the quite of summer to a noisy start of term.

We have enjoyed seeing many people over the summer at the local shows and our teams have been busy preparing the resource areas for the student arrival.

The farm team have been working hard preparing for calving, with the last veterinary checks, protocols and cleaning taking place.

As we hit our conception targets, we will be expecting 160 calves to be born over the next six weeks.

The students will be starting their calving duties shortly and will certainly be on a steep learning curve at the beginning of term.

We have a more consistent cow type now, with all of our heifers and younger cows meeting their targeted growth rates.

As the hybrid cow size and condition has stabilised, we have also been able to predict more accurately our annual grass and feed consumption.

We have just taken a further 300 tonnes of silage from the fields with a total cut of 1700 tonnes now wrapped and in the clamp ready for winter.

If the weather stays reasonable, we should have another 400 tonnes by the end of the month, which will cover all of our over winter forage needs.

We are going to be carrying out a probiotic trial with a local feed supplier for our calves and we are planning add biscuit meal into the diet to increase energy levels.

The aim as always is to maximise the health and condition of the calves and cows, so that milk production can be as sustainable and cost effective as possible.

For the fourth year running our students have continued to excel with achievement levels above the National Average and significant numbers of Merit and Distinction grades.

If you would like to know more about our courses, please visit our website, hlnsc.ac.uk, or come to our open event on Saturday, October 19

by Bronwen Bray, Walford College