LATEST NEWS
FARM DIARY Winter 2011/2012
| We are experiencing a much milder winter this year than last years wintery conditions which makes working on the farm easier. It has been very wet and windy, but this doesn't matter for our cattle who have been in their livestock barns since well before Christmas. The ground in this area is much too wet to leave cattle out very late in the autumn so the daily routine of cleaning out and feeding up started early October. |
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We have a new young bull on the farm; part of his pedigree name is Fantastic so he is called Mr Fantastic! The time came to see if he really was fantastic just prior to Christmas when we had our cows pregnancy scanned. Last year, in 2011, the calving rate and pattern was disastrous after we rented in two bulls that didn't do the job! As Mr Fantastic was a young bull who hadn't been proved to work we were crossing our fingers that our cows would be in calf. Well, I am happy to report that despite his slight immaturity he has got the majority of our cows in calf and the calving pattern is over a much shorter period which is good.
Again this year we have the sheep visiting us to clean up our pastures. As in previous years, a farming friend of ours brings his in lamb sheep to us, prior to lambing to eat the grass in our fields. Sheep do pastures a lot of good as they eat the grass much lower than a cow can which encourages new growth and a stronger grass plant. Sometimes the sheep lamb early and we have lambs in our field which is lovely to see.
FARM DIARY Summer 2011
We have been very fortunate with the weather this summer, it has allowed us to do our silage making in the dry. Silage is the preserved grass that our cattle eat in the winter when they are in the housing sheds. It is important to make dry, good quality silage as this improves the feed quality for our cows. We round bale and wrap our silage as we find this easiest to manage when feeding the cattle. You can see the bale wrapper in the picture working in one of our fields.
All our cows have calved successfully and the calves are growing at a rate of knots. Unfortunately, last year only half of our cows were in calf which is not good. We had hired in two bulls but neither of them did their job properly! SO - this year we have bought our own bull. He is a pedigree Limousin and part of his pedigree name is Fantastic - so we have called him Mr Fantastic - let's hope he is and does a better job than last year! We want all our cows in calf this time!
As we approach the end of the summer we are thinking of other jobs like hedge trimming and dung spreading. It is important to regularly trim the hedges as this ensures they stay dense and help keep the stock in the fields. In the autumn we apply the dung collected in the year back on the fields as a fertiliser. This job has to be done when the fields are not wet - it is a real circle. The dung makes the grass grow, cows eat the grass, produce dung which is then applied back to the pastures!
FARM DIARY Spring 2011
We have had a wonderfully dry and warm spell of weather this Spring - nearly 3 weeks with hardly any rain. This has helped us get forward with our Spring jobs on the farm.
Firstly, the ewes that were with us from another farm throughout the winter have returned to their home farm to lamb - not without a few lambs being born early whilst they were with us! We have been able to apply our artificial fertilizer to the fields to help nourish the grass and make it grow. Richard and James have been busy rolling down the fields and they all look very smart with their stripy rolling pattern.
Late April/May we are anticipating the first of our cows to calve this year. The scanning results have not been as good as previous years and we have a more spread out calving pattern. This makes things a little more tricky as we like all our cows to have calved and bonded with their calves before we put them out to grass. But nature has had her own thoughts this year and we will probably be calving until late June!
We are awaiting the country start of Spring - hearing the cuckoo for the first time - nothing yet but we are listening hard. Linda also thinks she has seen a couple of swallows - but 'one swallow doesn't make a summer'!! (Probably mis-quoted)!!
FARM DIARY Winter 2010/2011
Following all the snowy conditions over the Christmas period which were pretty to look at and difficult to work on the farm in, we now have the usual wet and relatively mild weather associated with this time of the year. (Don't know which is worse)!
Since the last Newsletter we have scanned our cows and heifers to determine which ones are in calf and how far along in their pregnancy they are. Unfortunately, this year we have a mixed bag of results. Only half of the cows are in calf which is not good news, and instead of them being due to calf within a month start to finish, this year they are spread over a 10 week period which is not so good. In previous years we like to calf our cows whilst they are still housed in the sheds so we can closely monitor what is going on. The protracted calving period this year means we will have to let the later calving cows out to grass and try and monitor in a 5 acre field which is not so easy. Generally, when a cow wants to calve she 'takes herself away' somewhere quiet and quite difficult to get near to. We will just have to be extra vigilant in the summer! We tried a new bull this year which was obviously not successful - a rethink for next year is required!!
The sheep that come to our farm to clean off the pastures have arrived. They come to us from another farm and belong to another farmer. He has insufficient grass on his own farm to they come to us for 'sheep keep'. They will return to their home farm before they lamb which is a shame as we love to see the baby lambs which sometimes happens if one lambs early.
Farm News Autumn 2010
We are enjoying a dry period at Headon at the moment and this allows us to get up to date with our farm work. We have started hedge trimming our road hedges. Not only does this make the farm look 'tidy' but the process thickens the density of the hedges which helps keep the stock in the fields! We have also managed to complete our dung spreading which means the pit is now empty and the dung (a valuable commodity with artificial fertiliser prices as high as they are)! is doing its job fertilising the land! It is a circle - cows eat grass that is fertilised - they produce dung - which, when they are winter housed, is cleaned out into the pit - then the pit is emptied and the dung spread on the grass!!
Our cows and calves are all doing well. The calves are growing nicely and we hope that the cows are back in calf since the visit of the Limousin bulls we hired in for the summer. As soon as we can, we will be scanning them to check whether or not they are in calf. (No we don't give the mums a picture to take away)!! The good weather allows the stock to stay out in the fields longer which is much better and healthier all round. However, as soon as the weather changes we will be bringing them into their winter sheds - then they need a lot of attention!
This year there seems to be a bumper crop of blackberries and sloes so please feel free to pick them when you visit!
Farm News Spring/Early Summer 2010
All our cows have calved successfully - mothers and calves doing well. We had 3 bull calves and 4 heifer calves. We hope for heifer calves as we are trying to increase our herd numbers, but as long as they are born live and healthy that is the main consideration.
Our stock will soon be all out of their winter quarters and in the fields. We have already turned out our yearlings and bulling heifers. It is really funny to watch them galloping as fast as they can around the fields, but the soon settle down. The grass is growing well now after being a bit late during the Spring. We will be silaging within the next few weeks. We make round bale silage which we feed to the stock next winter. We are already planning for the next winter such is the cycle of farming!
Farm News Spring 2010
Spring is approximately 2-3 weeks late for us on the Farm this year (as it is in most gardens). The sheep we had with us during the winter have returned to their home farm to commence lambing. On our land we have applied artificial fertilizer to feed the ground and make the grass grow for the summer ahead but the cold, wet weather has slowed the growing down.
The cattle we housed in our redundant farm buildings for the winter have also returned to their home farm and we are waiting for our own cattle to start calving. For three of the cows we have it is their second calving but for the remaining four it is the first time they have had a calf. (They are called maiden-heifers - the other three are cows). We are keeping a good eye on them and our fingers crossed it all goes as smoothly as last year. Once all the calves have been born and when the weather warms up we will think about putting our stock out on grass.
Joey News
As many of our regular visitors will know, Joey our very friendly border collie, has had four operations on both his back legs due to cruciate ligament problems. These operations have left him a bit stiff and arthritic. Despite this Joey loves to play and run with our visiting dogs (if they don't mind)!
However, we do have to try and make sure he doesn't overdo himself as this leaves him walking on three legs and in pain. The flipside of this though is that he needs to exercise sensibly to try and keep his weight down! So if Joey pleads for titbits please don't feed him - he doesn't need it!! Many thanks.
That was Xmas!
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James, Rebecca and friends pretend to be gifts under the on-site Xmas Tree! |
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Celebrating Halloween!
Lucy and Charlotte enjoyed the freedom at Headon for a special evening!
Summer was Here!
Getting together for a fun evening in August. The truth is that none of these fine fellows can surf on water! The balloon was last seen crossing Dartmoor!
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