April 2018
Thursday 5th April saw us turnout 18 cows and their calves on to pasture. Still rather wetter under foot than we would like but the weatherforecast is showing a rise in temp and not much rain.
March 2018
Well what a terrible first week of March weather we have had with snow and gales and now driving rain. It has been tough going in these conditionss getting all the sheep and cattle fed. However, there is no option but to turn out suitably clad! There have been some early starts as right in the middle of all this we started calving – 6 have arrived safely already, all are doing well. One was vigorous but unable to find the udder and as the cow was vicious, head-butting and kicking out, we had to bring her through the snow to the cattle crush to restrain her safely whilst we helped the calf latch on. First I had to hand-milk her in a blizzard and transfer the milk to a bottle so the calf could get the first suck.
Fortunately before the snow arrived Paul managed to finish all the ploughing but one field and spread muck and plough in the new market garden area. Once the snow has melted it will be back to the fields as soon as possible to finish spreading muck and ploughing.
We now have 18 calves born including one set of twins. unfortunately one cow had a stillborn calf so we had to split the twins up and give one of them to the cow who lost her calf. All are doing well now though and both calves getting plenty of milk.
The weather has continued to be trying and very wintery. I think we’ve had two days of sunshine in March.
Paul, Megan and Oliver completed planting a new hedge around Megans market garden.
All the ploughing is finished and we are raring to get on the ground with our new set of harrows/tines.