Dairy Talk: Gemma Smale-Rowland - 'Kind weather always helps the Cornish economy and this year has definitely been a good year for that'

Fourth-generation farmer Gemma Smale-Rowland farms with her parents at North Petherwin, near Launceston, north Cornwall, where they milk 120 pedigree Holsteins under the Glebewin prefix.

Gemma established the Cornish Moo brand in 2018 and was one of the first farmers in the country to install an on-farm vending machine.

The rain has finally come. Until now, the last rain we had in our area was the weekend of The Queens Jubilee back at the beginning of June.

The ground has obviously been very dry. It is not just the lack of rain we have had, we have also had beautiful sunshine to go with it.

Rotations

This has all meant that grazing platforms and paddock rotations went completely out the window. And as a result we started feeding a full winter ration at the beginning of August. We have now finished a whole silage clamp.

We did manage to get a second silage cut in and then we had a great yield on the wholecrop, which is going to be a huge help as third cut has been non-existent. It has been so dry the grass has just been burning up.

While I am always amazed how resilient grass can be in its ability to bounce back and recover, we have unfortunately completely lost some fields of grass to drought. These will now need to be reseeded.

These lost fields would have normally been our third-cut acres and we desperately needed this grass as it looks like we are currently going to be about 90 tonnes of silage short for the winter on our current stocking levels.

A third cut and a strong maize harvest is much needed. However, I remain optimistic and am great believer that it will all come right and sort itself out.

The beautiful weather has been kind for the school summer holidays. And kind weather always helps the Cornish economy. This year has definitely been a good year for that.

Warm

For us specifically, the warm and dry summer has been good for our milk vending machine, with milkshakes flying out of the door.

But now my thoughts are beginning to turn to what sales will be like as we head into what is looking to be a challenging winter period. We will keep an eye on the impact the cost of living crisis will have on premium products once the pinch starts to kick in.

On a more positive note, the boys in my household are happy and excited as the pheasants have arrived and the heat and dry weather has been great for their growing. The start of the shooting season cannot come soon enough for them.

Our working dogs are well rested and ready to go when the guns come out. We have had a summer full of love and fun, with two litters of puppies, all of which are going to wonderful homes.