It may be a cliché, a British farmer discussing the weather, but it has been strangely hot this week. Actually it’s been beautiful – high 20s celsius, often with a breeze and not too humid. But now it’s October, the leaves are turning, it’s dark by 7pm and we’re still wearing T-shirts – strange […]
I saw a small group of very graceful birds flitting around the cattle on Friday. There were five in all and they seemed to be picking insects out of the grass and from the air; no doubt enjoying the cows’ usual and no doubt tasty companions. I immediately identified them as yellow wagtails but then remembered […]
After two months spent with some lovely looking cows on the Shuttleworth Estate near Biggleswade, Admiral arrived home on Friday and seemed pretty pleased about it. Like any youngster one hasn’t seen for a while he seems to have filled out in those few weeks away. He may be a bit disappointed with the relatively sparse grass we have […]
Red Poll heifer We have decided to sell four of our young female animals. They were born in April/May 2009 so are ready to breed now. Two are registered pedigree with the Red Poll Cattle Development Society and two as A Grade with the Red Poll Cattle Society. We would be happy to run them with […]
The first calf our herd produced, all the way back in 2003 was a beautiful heifer that we called Poppy. She has over the years grown into a lovely cow who resembles her mother, Nancy. Since her first, she has borne a succession of excellent bulls including the notable “Elvis” so-called because of his first few very […]
Things were a bit on the low side during the latter stages of the winter and in March, Copper, a cow that we’d been nursing since October had a final visit from our vet, Caroline. Having tested negative for a whole range of conditions, we were hoping she might somehow recover. This was not to be and Caroline, […]
Young stock out on hardly any spring grass What joy! There were some pretty excited and rather dangerous jumping and kicking going on on Friday as we released our young stock and beef steers onto grass after five months inside on a diet of hay and straw. Before they could enjoy a taste of liberty there were two eartags to […]
After a spiritual uplift, something of a downer. Copper’s been off-colour for a while. In fact she’s been looking a bit below par through the autumn. This six – year old cow is one of our favourites. I know, the well-hard farmer’s front breaks up very quickly, but she’s placid and friendly; always one to […]
Suddenly winter’s here and although we are currently sitting between huge areas of snow to both north and south, it’s been really cold (for the UK). We’ve been at or below zero degrees for nearly a week, our wood burner is running 24 hours a day and the central heating has been acting up (now fixed […]
It’s dark and cold; damp and miserable. the wind has been howling – rattling the roof. I took a little piece of video of cows munching grass on a perfect June evening and as a result was subject to a fair degree of ridicule and scorn from certain quarters. But now I can savour its recollection of luxurious […]