The Year Round: Weather turns kind for corn drilling

Corn drilling in this Northallerton area has progressed well.

Dry, breezy spring weather suited us all. A busy week lies ahead on these 74 lowland acres on which pigs and poultry are the main enterprises.

One poultry house was cleared of birds last week and the switchover of 30,000 birds is a major undertaking.

Then the cleaning out and sterilisation of the buildings goes ahead using contractors who have been on the job for several years.

This suits both parties for they soon learn the best ways of dealing with our buildings.

All birds finish their laying cycle at the same time, which allows a new crop to be installed together. Thus disease risk is cut to a minimum.

New single space feeders are being installed in the pig houses. Metal equipment has a limited life among pigs. These spaces have a twelve-inch measurement each and a total of 44 came from a York firm.

The heavy gauge steel construction should last a bit longer but it is all an added expense.

Dry weather helped us empty the slurry pits. Our contractor is using a new method which allows the slurry to be injected directly into the ground.

It passes through a pipe termed as an umbilical cord direct to the planter roots, allowing a saving on artificial fertilisers.

There was a bit of a fertility problem among the sows last January and February but it has now righted itself.

Prices remain firm, and both pigs and poultry are in a rather better state than some time ago.

The amount of paperwork in farming remains astronomical.

CW 10/4/10