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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Turns out I was wrong about the supply of barn swallows and house martins in a post last week. I had thought we’d exhausted this year’s batch and with it the warmer days of summer.After some significant amount of walking about after calves, I managed to get all the herd into our field called ‘Wassledine’. They had […]
It’s been a while coming, but we are very pleased to let you know that we will soon have fresh beef to sell once again, produced from the Wassledine herd of Red Poll cattle. After almost three months out on the grass the herd is looking great – glossy and gleaming, especially after recent rain. […]
It is almost exactly ten years since we borrowed a trailer and drove to Ed Turner’s farm near the east coast, beyond Ipswich and that’s a long way east; to pick up three in-calf cows. That was a pretty exciting and alarming day and there have been plenty of memorable ones since – births, deaths, sales, […]
I spent most of the morning wrestling with a tractor that died last night – in a gateway, with a trailer, blocking a neighbour’s drive. Thanks to John of Town Farm Garage (the best place to take your car for a service), who, rather than going home at 6.30 on a Friday, volunteered to tow […]
The bitter north-easterly wind leaves your face painfully cold; more January than April. The ground’s really soft in places, but drying – slowly. And that made today just a bit of an anti-climax. We got the young stock out onto grass this morning. Usually there’s warmth in the air, sun on your back, working through layers of […]