The Year Round: Pullets are now moving close to their peak

THE latest batch of laying poultry at White Smocks in the Northallerton area has got off to a good start.

Split into three units, each of 10,000 birds, these pullets are 24 weeks old and are approaching peak performance.

Their numbers are augmented by 2,600 cockerels, a number found by experience to be the optimum proportion of females to males.

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Pig feed is bought in advance through a long-term contract.

Time will tell whether I have made the right decision for a drop in the price of soya bean meal has been forecast for months but still hasn't arrived.

We attended the Pig and Poultry Fair at Stoneleigh, Warwickshire last month. The general feeling was optimistic and there seemed to be a lot of investment in new techniques to help these two branches of intensive livestock production.

Certainly there is a steady demand for our bacon. The fields here benefited from an inch of rain spread over several days.

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It fell in sensible amounts which filtered into the soil rather than being blown away immediately.

Though we have only 74 acres in total the field of spring barley benefited greatly.

It is short in straw and there is a general feeling that straw will be very scarce in harvest. The latest method for spreading slurry seems to have become widespread.

It is applied in small doses by a trailing shoe which injects the slurry directly into the soil. We use no artificial fertilisers.

This new technique teaches us each time we try the system.

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One job among all the rest is replacing expanded metal floor slats in the pig houses. New feeders are fitted wherever necessary; pig and metal devices do not mix.

Regular attention is given to egg collection as packing takes more and more time each day.

CW 19/6/10