This summer’s definitely been one to remember, with heatwaves rolling through and barely a drop of rain in sight for some. On this week’s AG Show, we catch up with Norfolk pig farmer Rob McGregor to hear how he’s been keeping his animals cool and reducing heat stress during some seriously hot conditions.

We also hear from a dairy, beef and arable farmer who believes drought-resistant crops and smarter water management will be key if farms are going to cope with more summers like this in the future.

And we check back in with our friends at Drumgoon Dairy in the US to find out how farmers reacted to their five non-negotiables for building a resilient dairy business during a recent UK roadshow.

SOME USEFUL BITS (FROM AHDB & BEYOND)

Avoiding heat stress in pigs | AHDB

North Farm Livestock

Hot weather and heat extremes | AHDB

Dry weather and drought | AHDB

US dairy farmers bring practical resilience roadshow to Britain | AHDB

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So can we cast our minds back to last week? How was the partial solar eclipse for you guys?

My daughter ended up with a colander on her head and walking around as though she was one of the Daleks, because advice on the BBC website was that you could use a colander to see it kind of worked. But then some of our neighbours gave us the glasses so they worked a little bit better.

I'd not actually clocked that it was only a partial eclipse because I'd read headlines that it was a total eclipse, but I think that was only for parts of Europe. So when it was actually happening, we were like, oh. Oh, that's nice. Is that it? Like it's still an eclipse. We were looking through Melden mask glass.

That worked quite well.

I didn't bother going out and looking because I think I was too busy pegging out some washing.

You just had to look up.

Too much effort.

Well, as you know, I've got a media background, so I do tend to kind of like scrutinize the media coverage of these sorts of things. What an overhyped event. I was more concerned looking up at the sky, thinking, there's some clouds coming across. Where's the rain?

Hi, I'm Hannah Clarke.

I'm Charlotte Forkes-Rees.

And I'm Phil Maiden. Welcome to The AG Show.

Now, the hot weather is something that's been quite hard to escape this summer, quite literally. And we'll hear from a pig farmer about how the heat stress has been.

A big issue, failed conceptions, but also we get problems with pregnancies being lost as well.

So she may have conceived, but if she's stressed through the heat, then implantation may not take place or the brain tea may end up ending during the gestation.

Sticking with the heat theme, we'll hear from another farmer who says drought resistant crops might need to be considered.

We look after our soils, but the soils are the key. It's retaining water in the winter so that it can be used in the summer. You know, our water strategy in this country is terrible.

We need to be looking at how we take advantage of wet winters and use them in dry summers.

And we're rejoined by US dairy farming couple Rodney and Dorothy Elliott to find out how they' non negotiables were received on a recent tour of the uk.

A reminder, new episodes of the Ag show drop every Wednesday at midday, Available wherever you get your podcasts.

And you can not only listen to our dulcet tones, you can also watch our beautiful faces on YouTube. We've got audio and video versions available for every show. Don't forget to subscribe to make sure you don't miss us.

And please get in touch because we'd love to hear from you and comment on any of our social posts or email agshowhdb.org UK the weather's been a recurring theme this summer, with soaring temperatures and drought conditions biting farmers right across the country.

And there's a lot of pressure on all of our producers and livestock farmers. Keeping animals comfortable and also productive through extreme heat is no easy task.

Norfolk pig farmer Rob McGregor's been living that challenge firsthand and joins the Ag show to to tell us how he's coped as well as what he's learned along the way. So, welcome, Rob, to the Ag Show. I think a good place to probably start is actually how well do pigs really cope in this heat?

I think I heard on the radio this morning this is heat wave number five. But to be honest, it's felt pretty warm in between them as well for us this summer. So it's been pretty, pretty extreme for us.

And the short answer to pigs in hot weather is, unfortunately, they don't deal with it particularly well. Their native habitat would be woodland and scrub.

So put in a farming environment, really our job from a welfare point of view, is to try and mimic that. Not necessarily recreate it exactly, but mimic it as much as we can. You often hear people say that pigs can't sweat, and that's not entirely true.

They do have a limited capacity in which to do a little bit of sweating, which allows some evaporation of heat, but not a great deal. So they rely almost entirely on convection, radiation and conduction to get rid of their heat.

Just to make things even worse, most of their body is covered in a thick layer of fat, so their blood vessels are all buried beneath. That just creates that little bit of an extra challenge.

I feel like you could have been describing me there, Rob, but what I also take from that is actually pigs are a little bit more vulnerable than perhaps we might realise. So what would be some of the real key signs that you might be looking out for for potential heat stress in them?

So I just said that they don't sweat particularly well, but they do a little bit, and it tends to come around their snouts, the ridge of their snout and their nostrils. So typically, in a normal environment, the sow's nose snout is pretty dry.

When she starts to feel the effects of heat, then droplets will appear on her snout. They're hard to miss. Quite impressively. Large droplets start to happen, that's really our first sign.

But she'll also seek isolation, which I think we can all relate to.

I think if you're struggling to keep warm, the last thing you want is some other body with exactly the same problem coming lumping itself down next to you and making matters worse. So they'll try and get themselves away from the crowd and they'll try and find themselves a little bit of shade and a little bit of damp.

Which again relates back to what I was saying about natural habitat and being a woodland environment. And if that fails and temperatures are too high or get higher and higher, they'll start to pant.

But really by the time we see animals panting, we're at a point where we need to have acted or be acting immediately to try and help the situation they're in. And heat obviously as well, they become very reluctant to move. So they become harder to handle.

We wouldn't really want to be trying to do anything stock task wise in the warmer parts of the day anyway.

But there are times if you need to get them up and move them and they refuse to do so, then she's basically trying to get heat out of her belly onto the ground, prevent herself from creating any additional heat to add to her existing problems.

So it sounds quite a lot then like actually if you've got to that point, you really should have been stepping in a little bit beforehand. What would be some of the key things that you would suggest to sort of alleviate some of this heat pressure for them?

Given particularly we've had such sustained warm weather for quite so long.

Well, really our planning has to start right back in early spring. We always used to talk about getting our wallows ready in May or possibly April.

But we now have to start thinking about creating wallows, establishing wallows, at least digging them and allowing, giving the animals time to. Because you dig a hole, the pickle, go and sit in it whether there's water in it or not.

But she's actually doing us a favor there because you're consolidating the base of the wallow. So when we put water into it, or if we're lucky enough to get some April showers to fill them up for it to stay.

Nothing like a free fill on your wallows when you're establishing them. That's all helpful as well. About three years ago, I revisited the idea of shades for the pigs.

It's something we played around with many, many years ago. But we'd always struggled to keep them in place and secure and fixed but our huts, our arcs, have got a lot bigger.

So, yeah, I'll say about four years ago, I thought, there's an opportunity. We've now got these structures that we can anchor to, so we're putting the shades up and both those things can be done well in advance.

It doesn't matter if it's pouring the rain. We often hear people say it's more likely to snow at Easter than it is at Christmas. Well, that's not going to worry our shades and our wallows.

If they're there in advance, that's great. The other thing people often forget is the equipment.

So the water bowser that we so heavily rely on to get water around in the summer, just have a look over it, because the chances are the last time somebody used it, it was minus seven. They were attacking it with a blow lamp or a sledgehammer because it was frozen solid.

We get to summer and all of a sudden it's not performing quite as well as it needed to. So check over it and if we can improve its performance a little bit, that's great as well.

And also go to the place where you're planning to fill it up from, because I lost count of the amount of times I've gone back to a borehole that we previously used and found out that the pump no longer operates. We're nearly always on landlord sites. So, you know, the potato guy is using the water and we haven't got access to it.

The pipe doesn't reach anymore, the fittings aren't there. It's a bit too late when you want to be bowsering, to find these things out so early.

Preparation is the key to being in the right place when the time comes.

And, Rob, you're running an outdoor system. I wonder if you could. I mean, first I'm interested in what everyone's got on their farms.

I wonder if you could just give us a bit of an overview of your system.

Yeah. So the sows are housed in what we call a batch. And that batch of sows all farrowed together.

There might be a couple of hundred sows in that batch, so they're split down into smaller paddock sizes. Some of our herds are single parity, so all the animals on the unit are the same age. Other herds will have multiple parities.

So that gives you the opportunity then to size the animals. So the animals are living together with animals of a similar age, similar size, similar temperament as well.

Because obviously sow temperament changes a little bit with age as well. Excuse me.

And then the sows are either in a service area where they're mated or a gestation area, dry sow area, coming up to the point of farrow, pre farrowing a little bit of time before farrowing, we move them off into what we call an individual farrowing area.

So she gets her own little space, she's got her own hut, her own drinker, her own wallow and that's where she settles down, nests up and prepares herself to farrow. She's individually fed so that gives us a lot of control over her as an individual.

5 Week, 4 week, 5 week weaning ages are pretty common these days on the outdoor systems and at that point the piglets are collected up from mum, taken away and the sow basically just re enters the system as a non pregnant sow ready for service again.

What kind of impacts, Rob, have you seen on performance with the heat?

So obviously, I mean the worst case scenario is sow mortality where we lose sows from the herd and that has an instant effect on performance of the herd. It may be possible to replace her. If it is, there's often a lag and there's a cost incurred.

Sound mortality is a key thing we really are aiming to keep to an absolute minimum. But also conception rates can deteriorate.

All our first serves are done with artificial insemination, but we're still handling the semen, it's still in the tent. And again that's where I was talking about the misters being set up.

It's the pigs, the semen and the stockman or stock people who are benefiting there boars, the beado does drop off, their fertility drops off as well. And that's quite a long lasting. Six, eight weeks later, a hot spell, it'll still be affecting a bore's fertility.

So yeah, there are issues with failed conceptions, but also we get problems with pregnancies being lost as well.

So she may have conceived, but if she's stressed through the heat, then implantation may not take place or the pregnancy may end up ending during the gestation. Hopefully most of us owls do farrow, but we do see reduced litter born alive after hot spells of weather.

Again because of the sows, stress and fertility of the semen and smaller litters, smaller birth weights.

So we can end up with problems where feeding piglets, the sows milk production are good, we get a lower weaning weight and then obviously from weaning to finish takes longer and requires more feed.

Rob, I've got to ask as well, I mean we're talking all about the welfare of the pigs in this heat. But how hard has it been for you with this particular heat wave? It must have really been putting quite a lot of pressure on you as a farmer.

Yeah, you're exactly right, actually.

And that's one of the things I was thinking about in my head when I was prepping for today, is to get over that message of how important it is that we do look after ourselves, our staff.

Because at the end of the day, it's those guys out there in the field, myself included, who are going to make the difference at the end of the day whether we come out of this on top, whether it's a success or a failure. We're looking at ways of keeping the areas where the sows live cooler and more comfortable for them.

But it's also really important that we make the working environment so we not only using our shades and water to keep the sow housing at the right temperatures, but also now when we do the serving, it's artificial insemination and a big marquee type tent. And some of our herds this year have experimented with misters. So we're bringing the temperature down in the tent.

There's bores in there for stimulation. The sows are coming in and out of the tent all day. It can get pretty warm. And now we're hitting 30 degrees.

We can't get the job done in a couple of hours. In the morning, it takes four or five hours. By the time we're finishing serving, it has really got quite warm.

So the misters are just dragging the temperature down in the tent, making a lot more comfortable for livestock. But I haven't met a single member of staff who hasn't been appreciative of a little bit of mist blowing past them either.

So it's really important that we do remember that staff element as well.

So probably on your radar as well is these summers aren't like a one off anymore, are they? It is like we're kind of set in for them for the future.

I mean, it's not a case of what do we do if we find out we've got a heat wave. I think we can now safely assume that every summer's gonna be hot.

It's funny when the first year I worked with outdoor pigs, it was back in the mid-80s, and I remember being frozen solid for literally frozen solid for three weeks in the winter. And to me at that point as a student, this was the biggest challenge of outdoor pig keeping. And I know that's a long time ago.

But it's completely on its head now. The sows can cope with the cold pretty well.

I mean, really, the freezing up was a problem for us because the infrastructure of the unit was hard work. But the sows can cope with low temperatures.

The high temperatures that we're now getting mean that we, we need to be really, really on our game, I was gonna say.

So what sort of impact is it actually having then? Cause obviously it's gonna impact, isn't it, on fertility and your productivity actually. How is that feeding through to you at the moment?

So the one thing I can say, and it's nice to be able to report, is that we've always seen slightly higher sow mortality in the summer, but it's no higher now than it was 10, 15 years ago. So I think the steps we've taken so far, we've been ahead of it to a certain extent, so the situation hasn't worsened.

But I've heard this term used a few times this year and it's heat proofing. And I think we're going to hear it a lot more, not just relating to agriculture, but I think in our everyday lives as well.

We're going to have to start thinking about where we spend time, what we do and how we behave and how we keep the heat out.

And we started NFL, we started investing in insulated huts a good number of years ago and initially, again, that was partly aimed at keeping sows warm in the winter, but that insulation has just become absolutely essential for providing a suitable faring area for them in the, in the hot summers now.

And the technology that's been developed in the firing huts, the materials are used on the manufacturing process, is now rolled into the dry sow accommodation.

And things like our water systems have evolved over time to provide clean water, but you're never at the end of the game because we've got big volume tanks.

It doesn't matter whether your water's in an open water trough or a sealed water tank, if we're not getting temperatures dropping at night and we're getting consistent hot temperatures during the day, then that volume of water is going to heat up. Yes, there's water always being added to the tank as sales drink, but that's coming through a pipe network.

We're nomadic on our site, so most of our pipe work is on the surface. So it's basically a big solar water heating system.

So going forwards, Rob, I think we've talked about it already, but what sort of developments or investments are you looking to make? Because I guess this is part of your business now?

Yeah, so I'm partly responsible for the management of North Farm Livestock's breeding herds. So I share that responsibility with a couple of other people. Between us, it's. Yeah, it's our role to make sure that we're moving forward.

I mean, really, my advice, not just within our business but to everyone, is to keep up with innovation, to see what other people are doing.

I know some of these things come with a cost and quite a high cost, and there are times like we are right now, where making large investments in pick keeping isn't necessarily that palatable. But the misting we're using really low cost horticultural stuff is pennies and it can make a real difference.

The shades 30 sows under a shade and it's only 150 pound investment and there's some really good grants available as well. So it's very, very affordable for the improvements it brings, both in productivity and in welfare.

And just a perception, you know, we, we're very open as outdoor pig farmers. People drive past our fields or North Norfolk's full of tourists at the moment. Many of them will be our customers or potential customers.

And if they don't think what they're seeing looks right, then that's going to influence them. So it's really important that we do everything we can.

And, you know, at the moment, I'm pretty proud of what we're achieving considering the challenges we're facing.

Well, fingers crossed for some cooler weather soon and things can maybe start getting back to normal. But Rob, thank you so much for your time and sharing your perspectives on all things heat stress. So thank you.

Now, if you can cast your minds back a couple of months.

Dear listeners, US dairy couple Rodney and Dorothy Elliott joined us on the Ag show to break down their five non negotiables of a resilient dairy business, thanks to hdb. Throughout June and July, they took those ideas on the road, meeting with farmers across the UK and sharing their experiences.

Now, at the time I was pretty much over in the US on my honeymoon and given I've bored most of you with all that already, I think it's time to find out how it went for the Elliots, who are back. Drum Goon Dairy in South Dakota. We'll also going to be joined by Alastair Cliff and he farms in South Cheshire, a north Shropshire area.

And he also went to the Whitchurch event. So, Dorothy and Rodney, welcome back to the Ag Show. Thank you so much for coming back to see us. How are you both doing?

How are Things on farm, we're doing good. Back really busy as normal, still fighting a lot of the issues that we talked about while we're on the drill show. Staff still been our major issue.

Weather being dry and really, really hot. Cows having to deal with those heat problems. Lost more than we usually lose with heat stress.

But just back now being grandparents again, so having a bit of family things to do as well.

Yeah. Oh, excellent. And how would you. Obviously you're fresh back from your sort of roadshow. How would you sum up the whole experience?

It was really good. We enjoyed meeting a lot of people.

I was amazed that I think at every meeting we knew somebody, you know, somebody that had been to the farm or followed our story or knew us from, even from our life back in the uk. And so that was great catching up with people and meeting people.

I've said to several people, if I'd had gone and visited every farm I was invited to, I'd still be in the uk. So that was great to feel welcome and I think it was a good experience for us, but busy.

You have these five non negotiables when it comes to successful dairy farming. Did you find any of those particular factors resonated most with the farmers you spoke to?

Well, I guess the farmers would be the ones to judge that, Hannah.

But yeah, there was a lot of common ground in the questioning and in the discussions prior to the meetings, after the meetings, we all basically play the same game.

You know, we all deal with staff, we deal with cows, we deal with markets, we deal with the uncertainties of certain things, forage shortages, so on and so forth. So a lot of common ground.

But again, I think the skill that our operations runs on means that we have to be fairly strict on these non negotiables and stick to what makes our business click.

The one thing I had the most questions about after we had finished our presentation was about succession planning. That was probably one of the areas where a lot of people questioned me, even just personally, you know, and said, oh, that's me, that's my situation.

Or. And, you know, we're struggling and, you know, different things resonated with different people.

We got great questions and we got a lot of good discussions afterwards with the audience, you know, on a one to one, sometimes on their own situation and how they were struggling or what they were hoping to try and do, and they thought they could apply some of the things that we talked about to help them get through that.

Was there anything particularly unexpected that came in any of those discussions?

Yeah, the unexpected Things were when people made those connections to their own businesses and you could actually see some of the light bulbs going on while you were talking to the audience. That, I think was good.

You know, one of the things I think we learned from talking to a lot of the English and Scottish and Welsh farmers was we struggle with labour, they struggle with labour.

But some of the innovative ways they have tried to get around that Labour issue for me was really things that I want to bring back and try and introduce into our farm to try and deal with our labour issues.

Was there anything else that you saw? Because I'm assuming you got to.

Although you didn't get round to all the farms that you might have been invited to, I'm sure you saw several while you were here. Was there anything else that you saw and you thought actually that might be quite good to take back home with us?

Yeah, definitely. You know, the four farms I think we went and visited all were extremely impressive and doing really, really, really good jobs.

I said I'd have to go home to America to see some average cows again, you know, so we saw really good cows, really good management, and you always learn little things.

You know, just on one farm, we saw how they're using whiteboards so that the communication from the maternity team, day shift, night shift, is very transparent. So we're trying to implement something along that line using our WhatsApp group.

Do you think that there was anything that stood out, particularly that. Oh, yes, we definitely achieved exactly what we set out to do.

Or do you think that you need to come back again and we'd love to have you back and visiting more farms, but do you think, you know, you achieved everything you initially set out to do?

Well, I was impressed that we had good attendance at the meeting. We had good participation from the audience.

The Dairy Leader Group meetings, I thought were very good, that we got to spend a little bit more one to one time with some of the members. But, yeah, definitely, you know, we tried our best. I guess we didn't really know what we were getting into.

But dairy farmers all over the world speak a common language. We understand each other's issues.

We got great participation in most of the time. And the other thing I have to give a shout out to is the facilitators with the hdb because sometimes maybe there wasn't a lot of questions.

Cause sometimes when you're hearing information, you can't think of a question you want to ask.

But the facilitators kept, you know, raising issues or bringing up questions that they knew had Been asked in other sessions and then that helped to make it more, more interactive. So that was great too.

We'll give you the check after, you know, for the nice shout out for htv. So yeah, but I suppose this might be a good point to have a quick talk with you, Alistair. So you attended one of the sessions. I.

It'd be great to get some of your feedback. How did you find it?

The main thing to begin with it was quite easy to get baffled by the scale of the operation that Rodney and Dorothy have got, but you really had to look past that and find some common things within the business.

And I think the thing that stuck in my mind really was one of Rodney's non negotiables was know your numbers and the spreadsheet that they have to do. Think it was either weekly or monthly for the bank and that's quite powerful for any business.

If you know the point that you're at then you know exactly what your strengths are and other things that you've got to worry about whether you can invest now or whether you've got to put something on the back burner until next year.

And even as far as sort of forage stocks and things, knowing where you are every month, particularly with the weather we've got at the moment, you know, it's quite a. Gives you a bit of headspace really.

If you've got something written down and you know what it is, then you've got a bit of headspace to think about ways around the problem.

Would you say that was probably the best, biggest thing you took away to bring back to your own farm?

Possibly. I think.

Well, I think the biggest thing I've probably got in common with Rodney was that I married somebody with a complimentary skill set and then able to let my wife get on with what she's good at, the same way I think Rodney probably is. And that frees up a lot of head space as well to think about farming rather than having to be worried about office work and stuff like that as well.

So working as a team is probably the biggest thing that that took on.

Yeah, I hadn't appreciated Rodney and Dorothy, that one of your non negotiables might be choose your partner carefully in when you're in love and marriage.

Yeah, I've always said it was the most important business decision I ever made.

What an accolade, Dorothy. I think that's quite saying something.

Yeah. I didn't realize that was what he was judging me on.

But anyway, yeah, it was one of.

The five non negotiables in brackets. And Alistair, when you saw the events advertised, what was it that made you think you wanted to sign up to go along and find out a bit more about it?

I think really it was because I was a young farmer at the time that they were advertising for people to go to South Dakota and it's something we sort of looked at at the time but didn't really consider seriously. So I was quite interested to see how somebody had done it and what the results were, really, how they'd got on with it.

So, yeah, I think that was the main, main attraction for me to go and have a look. Yeah.

Seeing how your life could have panned out.

Well, I don't know. It's not the two planned anyway. I'm reasonably happy with how it's turned out.

So it was a nice coincidence then.

Well, or a happy side piece to this, then, that actually you were able to take away some interesting points, particularly around getting to know your data a little bit more.

Yeah, I think probably the big difference is access to land in America. You know, the land is there, you know, there's still cost to everything, but.

But you're not competing with the same sort of things that you are in Britain at the moment with development and carbon offsetting and all that sort of stuff. So, yeah, that was probably another thing that I took away from it.

Yeah.

On the flip side of that, probably for us is we get a glimpse into the future when we go back to the UK or Europe, and that maybe gives us an opportunity to prepare our business for what the future may bring to us, because a lot of the things that are there now are probably heading this direction, you know.

Yeah, I suppose it's what we were trying to say is we weren't anything special coming out South Dakota. We just tried to do what we knew well and small steps and be consistent and it has led to where we are today.

But it doesn't matter where you're starting out, the attention to detail, making sure things are done right, making sure that you're being conscious of your costs, your. Your resources and being careful with them all leads to growing a good business.

Yeah. And I guess, you know, we talked to several people who are at a stage of their development of their dairy businesses where they're.

They're needing to bring in middle management or upper management. And we had some private conversations about where do you flip the switch from giving up control of.

Of most of what you're doing and that you love doing as a dairy farmer and putting trust in other people. To do those and getting the rewards of sometimes those people actually do the better job better than you do.

It's a shock, but that's the way life is, you know.

Well, it was great to hear that the roadshow was a success and yeah, really pleased to hear that everyone got a lot out of the sessions and the discussion because I think that peer to peer learning for farming is just so, so important and those five non negotiables, as you say, can be picked up at any point where you are in your, in your farming career. So, Rodney, Dorothy, Alastair, thank you so much for joining us and yeah, stay in touch.

You're listening to the Ag Show. Remember, do get in touch if you want to suggest something for us to cover in a show. Email is agshowdb.orguk or get in touch on any of our socials.

Now, let's come back to something we touched on at the start of the show. The heat and the huge impact it's had on farms this summer.

We've already heard from pig farmer Rob McGregor about managing heat stress in his pigs. Now let's get a dairy, beef and arable perspective from Angela Turney, who farms near the Malvern Hills.

Now, I caught up with Angela a couple of weeks ago when greengrass was already in pretty short supply and she told me that they'd wrapped up harvest as early as 22 July. But rather than celebrating an early finish, it was a reminder of just how tough this summer has been.

The quality of the wheat, terrible, really. Small grains, that's really key to us because everything we grow on this farm stays on the farm. We feed it back into the cattle.

We're quite a sustainable system here. We're already knowing that the grain shed's not full, we're not going to have enough wheat and barley for the cows. And straw quality.

It's been thrashed by the sun. So we've been out combining at three in the morning, finishing at two in the morning, stopping in the middle of the day. I mean, we're.

We don't know whether we're coming or going, but it's what we've done to try and get the most out the straw, actually, because we started baling barley straw last Thursday and I went in the field, picked a bale up and went and fed it to some cows straight away. So nine big bales, nine Heston bales have gone out this morning. Barley straw and hay just to put in front of stock silage in front of the dairy herd.

So everything from our winter Budget is being dis. Well, it's disappearing in July.

And then how are you finding its impacting on your milk yields? Because obviously heat's not brilliant for the dairy cows either.

No, not at all. They're struggling. I mean, we all know cows well. Any animal isn't very good at dealing with heat stress.

But cows certainly are really starting to flag. We're autumn block halving, so it sort of works to our benefit. We've just been drying cows off.

We've got no food for them, so there's no point putting valuable food in front of them. So they've gone off further away from the grazing platform here, so probably milking about 80 tonight. But their yields are.

I mean, I don't even look at the milk ticket. It's pretty. Pretty sad.

Incredibly trying.

Yeah.

And then from that beef point of view. So how many beef animals are you finishing here?

So we sell them as stores, so we keep everything through to. From calves through to stores selling them. We've probably got about 150 we'll be selling this October. They are looking pretty plain.

And I'm either gonna have to take the hit financially and sell some cow that I know have got the potential to be in a much better place than they are now, or we're going to start bringing them home and start giving them silage and just push them on a bit. Because it's pride before a fall, isn't it? I don't want to sell something that I know isn't where it should be year on year.

So we'll probably push them just a little bit to improve, to reap a bit more financial reward for them.

Because I think at the moment I built beef prices just increasing slightly, but I don't think they're anywhere near as where near where they should be.

And it doesn't help, like we were saying earlier that, you know, it's been a very trying summer, but we had that bad winter last year, very wet.

Yeah. So this. This is the problem. So the beef cattle were outwintered, so they had a tough winter. It was wet. So they had a long, wet winter.

Now they're having a long, dry summer. Yeah, we had a bit of spring in the middle where we did luckily fill the clamps and make some good silage, but they've had quite a tough time.

This is looking like it's a bit more of a recurring pattern. Last summer was so dry, then we had a wet winter. And I am just praying that we don't have a wet winter.

We can keep the cows out late this autumn, turn them out early this spring because if we don't, we are stuffed. We've always done things the way we've done it because it works for our system.

But now the weather is playing against our system and actually maybe we've got to look at more drought resistant varieties, more drought, you know, much more drought. And also, I mean we look after our soils, but the soils are the key. It's retaining water in the winter so that it can be used in the summer.

You know, our water strategy in this country is terrible. We need more looking at how we take advantage of wet winters and use them in dry summers. Then reservoirs, irrigation.

I think that's definitely, definitely worth. We need to be looking for the future.

But now it almost feels like you're in the real trenches here.

You're in the thick of it. We're quite literally firefighting. I mean we have been firefight. Last summer we had three fires on the farm.

Oh wow.

Absolutely terrifying. Just you feel so helpless. You do everything you can.

This year we've been on it, I've had a fire station, we've talked to the staff, machines are blown down daily, tankers are full of water, cultivators are in the yard position ready to go. We've done everything we can, thankfully touch wood so far, but a lot of people have really, really struggled.

And on top of all the stress, you have a fire, then you've got to deal with insurance, you've got to find replacement machinery. I mean, it's too much. It is just too much.

So Phil, Hannah and Charlotte, well done for another AG Show.

A little bit of time to wait.

I think I might be dead.

I would be 98 about to turn 99. So I, I think I'm gonna be. But to be fair, I'm probably not gonna have a pension that'll be worth paying anything.

So I'll still be working at that point. Yeah. Still tuning in for the Ag show? Yeah, you're listening.

I won't be here unless I'm in a jar.

Don't worry, if I'm still working, I'll will you out so you can be really unimpressed.

Go and get the jar.

Like.

Phil, is this as bad as you remember?

Don't get me wrong, no. A full eclipse is great.

It's when the media hype it, hype up a partial eclipse and make me think that the sky's going to go dark and all the birds are going to go to sleep. That's when it goes wrong.

To be fair, it did get quite dark for me. The dogs didn't like it. They. They were trying to peg out the washing with me and they ended up running back inside. It did get quite dark here.

Was it just not like a T shirt or a blanket falling on your head that you hadn't pegged out properly?

To be fair, I was putting up a. A tablecloth, so could have just been like a parrot. And you think it's night time because it's gone over your head.

Well, it's time to put this show to bed.

So, [email protected] is the email address for you to get in contact, but other than that, Phil, Hannah, Charlotte, well done again and we'll see you all next week.

Bye.