New Year and New Arrivals

Happy new year to everyone! We made it through the Christmas and New Year without too many issues and compared to last year’s bad weather it has been a doddle!! There’s not a frozen water pipe in sight!

Having said that, there is still plenty of time for the weather to turn against us and in fact one of our students commented on how we are long overdue some horrible weather – just a little steady rain will do me!

The cows have been milking well over the last few months with approx 3,600 litres being produced by the farm every day. The drive we had on fighting any mastitis cases and foot trimming any cows showing signs of lameness, has really paid off as the herd is now one we can be proud of. The next stage in improving the overall herd wellbeing and health is to start looking at the buildings and infrastructure around the cows.

This week the ewes will be housed ready for lambing in March. They will be given a routine booster vaccination to protect the lamb against Clostridial disease and have their feet bathed to help prevent foot problems while housed. The ewes have all been scanned and those carrying twins or triplets will be penned separately and receive extra rations on top of the hay we made back in the summer.

At the same time as lambing we will be expecting to see a few of the Simmental herd calving as well. These calves will have been sired by Vanguard, our prize winning bull and we are eager to see how they look. With any luck they will all have show potential and be sold for breeding in the future.

Finally just to say congratulations to our herdsman Tom and his wife Becky Roberts on the arrival of a baby girl just before Christmas. We believe Poppy already has a pair of wellies and has been shown how to run the milking parlour!!

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