July 2007

I hope that you and those you love have managed to stay safe and dry. What an amazing month!

Rain... is this global warming or the seasons throwing in a curve ball... who knows, but it's playing havoc with many people's lives. We are fortunate here in that there's a lot of grass for the rain to fall on and eventually soak away from and we have relatively few animals for the acreage. So, although the grass isn't growing very well ('cos the land is waterlogged), the cows are finding enough to eat. It's a bit of a different matter for the pigs, and we have brought some of them into the yard to dry out!

We have been rather surprised to only have one calf born this month. Moon River (guess why we called her that!), was born to Snow Moon one morning and is currently doing her best to keep up with Princess and Orion whilst not losing sight of mum! It did look as if Mum, our Belgium Blue X cow, was going to produce, but after a lot of heaving and pushing, it turned out that she had an infection of the womb, rather than a calf :-( After some TLC from Edward, our homoeopathic vet, she's back on form and making eyes at Monty - fingers crossed for next year!

We had to make tough decisions with regards to 2 cattle this month. We found a steer with a broken leg in the back fields one morning. The hunt came and shot him. Nothing to be done with a big animal with a broken leg apparently... on a purely practical business front it looks like we'll be short of beef in October. And our dear friend Primrose, tipped by those that know in the British White Cattle Society to be a prize winner, has been losing condition since she lost her calf 3 years ago. We kept hoping that with plenty of grass, some friends to hang out with and lots of love she might pull through, but the wet of this month saw her looking miserable and we decided to let her go to the great cow shed in the sky. A call to the knackerman, Danny, and he came out with his equipment and his lorry to put her down and take her away. This is the closest I've got to murder. It feels like a waste of their lives. It's the first time we've had to do it and is not something I ever want to have to do again.

As my mother would say, as one door closes, another opens and the farm burst into life again with the arrival of the turkeys. Those of you who have been reading this regularly will know that this is one of my favourite events. The turkeys are so full of life and seem dedicated to a joyful existence... especially when they have room to flap and run in the wind. We are in the process of acquiring larger accommodation for them and the chickens having been given a chicken house from Purton House. It's being dismantled in readiness for transport back to the farm... then it will be all hands on deck to rebuild it before the winter sets in.

We have managed to dodge the rain and bring in some silage. Goodness knows if hay making will be possible this year. It feels more like February than July!

We are living in interesting times.