Martin and his wife Debbie moved from Derbyshire to La Vieille Cour, Loire-Atlantique, France, in 1990. They farm 50ha, run a 28-cow herd of American Holsteins and are in the process of setting up a beef enterprise. Well, it has been a cold, wet Maywith only three days of sunshine and consequently everyone is suffering from coughs, colds and sore throats. Deb has lost her voice for over three weeks. It started to worry me, I thought I was going deaf. We finally started silaging on May 29, Grasswas cut in the afternoon, left to wilt the next day in temperatures of over 28°C and clamped the following day. We saw a yield of more than 6t DM/ha of young ryegrass full of clover and no effluent. The yield surprised me because all the 11ha had been grazed twice, some three times, and had only received 50kg of nitrogen/ha. Temperatures have risen from 15°C on the May 28, to over 30°C on the June 5.
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