At this time of year we aim to be completely prepared for winter. All winter feed is in, water supplies insulated against the coming frost, shed clean and tidy. For once I think we can tick all of those. By now (early November) we are just putting off the inevitable day when the herd comes […]
My Dad was fond of telling me that he had never been bored in his life and was always critical of me when, in my teens, I regularly complained of being bored . Either he had never done a boring job or he had a poor memory. Some dull jobs are better than others of […]
Two calves last Tuesday. Or at least Shiny produced a lovely but quite small heifer sometime during the previous night and Chilli a larger and energetic heifer during the morning whilst I was preparing some pea sticks. Both are doing well now that we have got past the annual worry that they won’t find mum’s […]
We own a book by Eddie Straiton called ‘Cattle Ailments, recognition and treatment’ (The Crowood Press), which, when it arrived a few years ago, I glanced through quickly and have rarely felt inclined to pick up since. My reluctance is no reflection on the book’s relevance. Rather, the graphic illustrations reveal my squeamish side and I have […]
Rather unexpectedly, it’s dark and white this morning; obviously we need to keep more of an eye on the forecast, as we hadn’t noticed it was on the way. Fairly typical southern English snow – wet and sloppy and the temperature is hovering above freezing. Actually now that the cattle are inside, we feel a bit like whatever happens […]
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, […]
I seem to recall being a bit smug about getting this year’s hay crop in without it feeling a single drop of rain. Well, the same feeling isn’t available to apply to the barley straw. One of our neighbours has grown a crop of spring barley and offered the straw to us. We said we’d have […]