Jack Smellie offers some tips..
There is plenty of winter preparation to be done on the smallholding at this time of year:
Forage
Ideally barns and sheds should be full of your predicted hay/haylage/silage and straw requirements by October/November and, assuming you have the storage space, you really want enough to keep you going through till March. If, like us, vehicular access in the winter is poor, getting those bales in is crucial before the land becomes too soggy. No two winters are the same, but we keep all-year round records of our hay/ straw usage so we can sensibly predict the numbers we need.
Livestock numbers
Your winter numbers should be as low as practical. You don’t want the extra work or feed costs that come with carrying ‘additional passengers’; nor do you want the extra feet on your land. This is particularly important for poultry numbers just in case we have another avian flu lockdown – something that seems fairly likely, especially in high risk areas.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der November 2017-Ausgabe von Country Smallholding.
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der November 2017-Ausgabe von Country Smallholding.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
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Game on
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