At this time of year we aim to be completely prepared for winter. All winter feed is in, water supplies are working and insulated against the coming frost, shed clean and tidy. For once I think we can tick all of those boxes. We put off the day when the herd comes indoors until the […]
Posts in category Cattle
Neospora caninum – closure of a...
Neospora is a protozoan parasite that requires both cattle and dogs to complete its life cycle. The dog eats placental or foetal material infected with the protozoan, it then sheds oocysts (the eggs) in its poo which persist in the environment for a long time. Cattle then graze an area where the dog poo has […]
Wassledine heifers spotted at Pegsdon
When we sold three Red Poll heifers to the Wildlife Trut last summer, they went to Flitwick Moor to help keep their vegetation under control. We were told then that they would be spending the winter at Pegsdon Hills Nature reserve, but we haven’t had a chance to visit them since. We heard (through some WT […]
Red Polls added to Trust’s armo...
Last week, we sold three, year old heifers to the Wildlife Trust in Bedfordshire and they are now enjoying life on Flitwick Moor, an intriguing wet woodland nature reserve to the north-east of Flitwick. This is a place where, in the past, peat was cut and iron-rich spring water sold as a blood tonic. The cattle will help to keep […]
First calves of 2014
As usual, we fail to predict the arrival of our first calf. After ten years of doing this we still fumble around for some kind of certainty to replace the ‘well sometime soon’ when asked exactly when the calves will arrive.Last Sunday morning Alan arrived (name suggested by daughter; don’t know why). A sturdy bull […]
Wet cows
Rain. It’s feeling very British now; cold but not freezing, gloomy, very wet underfoot. Short days getting shorter. The cattle seem pretty weather resistant but I always feel for them as conditions deteriorate at this time of year. Someone once told me that cattle can cope with very cold conditions as long as they are […]