Went to visit friends who are milking today. as we are still in winter all the cows are inside all the time. When the weather improves & there is enough grass the cows go outside for the summer. They are eating silage which is collected during the summer & stored in big clamps to keep the air out, it sort of pickles it...smells good too !!
Yes Darrell, most farmers in England calve all year round as we have mostly a liquid market. The buying companies want a steady supply all year round unlike your system of block calving. When we milked up to two years ago we supplied a local cheese company. Unfortunately the supermarkets have driven the price so far down that every day dairy farmers are going out of dairying. The price per litre is lower than the cost of production. That's why our two sons upped sticks & went to NZ. Sorry there endeth the lesson, I did go on a bit !!!
