In this month’s RABDF/NMR Gold Cup Comment, Paul Broad reflects on a successful Open Day at Treveale Farm in Cornwall and how, sometimes, everything falls into place.
What a month it’s been; a bit busy here to say the least. Preparations for the Open Day were not without a few incidents along the way. Sometimes in farming you have a little bit of luck; after winning the Gold Cup, we were given a cow recovery bucket to try for six months.
‘Will it work?’ and ‘do we really need it?’ were two of the questions that came to mind, but you give a farmer something free of charge, and they’ll always give it a go. So, when our bulling heifers busted the gate open and got into the feed passageway, three fell over and couldn’t get up again – as the resin they eat off is very slippery.
With the recovery bucket on the handler, the heifers were quietly and effortlessly winched into the bucket and taken to the loose house where they all stood up and have made a full recovery. It was a good thing we had the right piece of equipment for the job. Since then, a deal has been done to make its stay permanent, with all the scepticism gone, but my pocket now several thousand pounds lighter.
Then, a few days before the Open Day, we had a cow with a twisted uterus; the vet was called and untwisted it, but the calf was too big to come out. We haven’t had a caesarean for the past five years, but this was carried out, with a live Belgian Blue bull calf delivered. Cow and calf are both doing well – there’s never a dull moment in farming. Other than that, everything else went to plan, with the time and effort not wasted, as we have a farm assurance inspection next month.
Laura and her team at RABDF arrived on Sunday afternoon and marked out the sites for the trade stands ready for Tuesday – it’s a good thing we have a big yard as there were over 40 stands. All day Monday the stands were being erected, and the farmyard was a hive of activity. By mid-morning the ox roast was cooking, and everything was ready for tomorrow.
Then the day was finally here. The morning milking went smoothly, and we had cleaned out and fed all the animals by 9am, when the first visitors started arriving. Over the next two hours, the procession of cars down a usually quiet country road seemed endless. With between 900 and 1,000 people here, it was a tremendous turnout; we had visitors from all over the country, and especially farmers from Cornwall making the most of having Gold Cup Open Day in the county for the first time.
We had typical Cornish weather for the day with a few light showers, but the wind soon blew them away; what we wouldn’t give for some rain now. I think the visitors were surprised at how many trade stands were present, and it created a show type atmosphere, with farmers having a good look around our unit and socialising at the same time.
Visitors’ questions
Tractors and trailers took people to see the calf igloos and heifer unit. The six speaker stations were well attended, with lots of people listening to how we do what we do on this farm. All of us at Treveale were answering questions on how, why and what we do on the farm all day, and by four o’clock it was all over. In the next hour all the trade stands – which took one and a half days to set up – had packed up and gone home, and we had our farmyard back to normal again.
It was a team effort to pull off this year’s RABDF/NMR Gold Cup Open Day
For us as a family, it was a day we will never forget. During the preparations, you wonder how many people will come, but to have all those people visit our farm is mind blowing. The interest in what we have done and are doing was staggering, and I’d like to thank everybody for coming. I’d particularly like to thank Laura and her team at RABDF for organising the event and making it run so smoothly. We were even lucky enough to have the Gold Cup in our house – for one night only.
I would also like to thank all our sponsors for their generosity, with the ox roast and cream teas going down a treat. For all the trade stands for attending and creating a great atmosphere – a lot of Cornish people compared it to the Royal Cornwall Show. But the stars of the show really were the cows and youngstock; with all the people and machinery moving around, they never batted an eyelid. For them it all just seemed like another day at the office.
Open Day highlights
The highlights for me were all the people asking questions about what we do, and having our family photographed with the Gold Cup. We also had an Irish farmer here who was on holiday in Cornwall, he arrived at 10am and was still here at 5pm when we started milking. And hearing other farmers say they want to win the Gold Cup within five years, bringing more energy and enthusiasm to this prestigious competition.
Now it’s back to the day job; a light fourth cut has been taken, with it being cut, raked and picked up within 24 hours. All the fields have been spread with the separated liquid, but we haven’t applied any fertiliser as it’s too dry. The lack of rain is starting to show now – fields only cut a week ago are already burning off. The maize is showing signs of stress and was tasselling out by July 10; it’s going to be another early harvest this year. On July 18, we started combining our winter wheat, which is a good three weeks earlier than normal. I think that the yields of corn and straw will only be average, but we’ll know more when it’s all in the shed.