Here comes Christmas!! and our BBC TV programme!!

After all that over indulgence during the festive season, you might like to laugh it off by watching the Barnes family on TV in a weeks time.  The East Midlands version has a section at the end featuring the effects of the wet summer, autumn and winter has had on our dairy farm in Somerby. 

This BBC programme will be aired on Sunday 30th December at 5.30pm on BBC One and its title is "Wild Weather in 2012".   They filmed Noel (my 82yr old father in law) on his memories of past wet seasons of weather over his lifetime, my husband Mark on the effects the present rainfall has had on the land, my son Harry (15yrs) on his thoughts of the weather can have on this farm and myself, who had the nice warm Aga in the kitchen for the interview.  Countryfile's Adam Henson, eat your heart out!

Talking about this wet year, we've had another deluge over the past couple of days.  My rain meter in the garden can't take more than 1.5 inches so we've had more than that.  Consequently, we are daily underwater throughout the outdoor yards and with 120 cows housed inside, we've been unable to scrape out the muck to the muck store.  Mark's getting rather stressed about it and has now got a cold to boot.  Why can't Christmas be in July when all the cows are outside feeding themselves, spreading their own muck and don't need a daily bedding with fresh straw?  We'd have time to enjoy the celebrations instead of having to fit Christmas in before afternoon milking.  Barely time to open all my presents, eat a roast dinner and have a glass of something alcoholic!

So it's the day before Christmas Eve, Charlotte and I have finally found one of the last Christmas Trees available at the local garden centre and decorated it before lunch.  "So Santa now has somewhere to put all my presents!" exclaimed Charlotte.   No help from the boys in this household, just Beattie the puppy who took off as many baubles as we were putting on!

Just been Carol Singing around the village, which was fun and definitely filled us with  alot of Christmas Spirit.  Or was that the Mulled Wine and mincepies.

Anyway, don't forget to watch "Wild Weather in 2012" next Sunday at 5.30pm on BBC One, for a good old fashioned belly laugh!

Have a good Christmas and New Year.  Roll on a much drier 2013!

I should be ironing but it will soon be Christmas!

Can't believe how close to Christmas it is!  With all the yard jobs done by 4pm, I'm in the house and plan to catch up on the huge pile of ironing whilst we've got dark nights so early.  But here I am, finding another job (distraction) to do instead - writing my blog!

Most of the Christmas shopping done online this year, so just waiting for some extra presents to arrive and wrap.  Christmas cake made and iced (we do love rich fruit cake - I always make ours but have to hold everyone back from eating it before the big day), two dozen mincepies in the cake tin as well as a chocolate log (homemade of course, I bet that doesn't last the week!).  All this baking is because we're still getting four fresh eggs per day from my White Leghorn hens - think we'll call them after the Telly Tubbies - Tinky Winky, Dipsey, LaLa and Po.  You can't tell them apart but every morning I let them out of the hen hut, three have already layed their eggs, and one (Dipsey - I think) runs as fast as she can to the straw barn, as if in desperate need to lay her egg!  Sure enough ten or so minutes later, she announces she's laid her egg in a feed bucket of hay!

Back to Christmas preparations.  I always worry we'll run out of heating oil, tractor diesel, cow cake, horse feed etc as everyone will close down on Christmas Eve for the holidays!  It seems that most of the world is having a few days off work and we're the only ones still working on Christmas Day.  I've been brought up with it of course.  All the cows need milking, feeding, scraping out and bedding down before we can open a present!  Usually breakfast comes before that too so its well into the morning when we can think about sitting down as a family to open our presents together.  This has turned into a family tradition.  I've done this all my life and it's funny to see my teenage children still want us all to sit together and see each present opened. 

Christmas lunch is always at 1pm in our house.  That's because we're outside again just after the Queens Speech to do the milking and feeding round.  We have my parents coming round this year - who are semi retired farmers now - and my in-laws will join us for lunch too. So cooking for 8 this year.  I don't mind as it seems easier to have everyone here than rush off to another house for lunch which might not happen until 4pm!  I usually cook the "bird" overnight so its cooked by breakfast anyway.  Just leave it to rest in the bottom oven of the Aga whilst preparing the rest of the meal. 

It's sad we just don't have time to go to Church on Christmas morning which would be nice as we would see some of our neighbours and we live on Church Lane.   Some years ago we went to Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve, which was lovely but again, we're up early next morning with so much to do before breakfast, it just doesn't fit in.

This cold snap we've had these past few weeks has been a blessing in disguise.  We love the dry, solid ground and only once has the parlour frozen up during the night.  Some of our yearling heifers are still outside and we're taking hay to them daily.  Some have turned alittle wild and nomadic as they've got so many acres to graze and shelter from.  Sadly the forecast is for more wet weather and warmer temperatures this weekend, which is bad news.  Sometimes, baby calves hate the change in temperatures which can lead to them getting pneumonia.  If left untreated they can die from it.  So listening out for any slight cough or runny nose in the youngstock.

Well, this is not getting the ironing done.  I wonder if I can pay Charlotte with cakes to clear the ironing pile.

Cows don't wear wellingtons!

One and a half inches of rain fell yesterday and last night, according to my rain gauge hanging on the washing line post!  Enough, enough!

Mark wanted to move some in calf cows from the fields today, luckily the sun came out and we decided to deal with them on Owston Lane, making motorists wait.  The gateways are bottomless.  You try turning a cow sinking through a foot of rain drenced soddon mud in wellingtons.   The cow will always outrun humans.  They don't wear wellingtons! 

 Anyway, we got the ones needed out and walked them home to the shed in time for calving in the dry.  Nightmare bringing in a newly calved cow and hours old baby calf if we don't move them in time.  One calved this week the day after bringing in to the shed!

Spoken to the BBC Producer today, who's busy editing the programme about the weather.  Its possibly called "2012: worst weather ever" or something like that.  He still doesn't know when exactly it will be aired, but either first week of December or the very last week.  He prefers the last week of December, as it's looking back over 2012's weather.  I will keep you posted.

Looking forward to a nice log fire, feet up and watch a nice film on TV tonight.  That's fine until Mark starts snoring loudly half way through.

First Frosts, Autumn Leaves and the BBC!

Woke up to a white frost this morning which was a shock to the system.  The garden looked lovely with the sun shining on the frosted autumn leaves.  It was great watching Beattie playfully prancing about in them. Her first frost.  It's not going to last though. More wet weather to come tomorrow. God it's saturated out there.

We've got a couple of weaned calves suffering a bit with a cough.  Mark injected them as we don't want to loose any to pneumonia due to the changing temperatures!  Wished the weather would make up its mind and stay cold, to kill some of these bugs.

My husband is working so hard, he's milking 13 times a week AND doing all the yard jobs.  Our relief milkman, John, usually comes every morning thoughout the winter, so Mark can do the bedding, feedings, mucking out whilst the cows are being milked.  A couple of weeks ago, John fell and has fractured his arm!  Another relief milkman we use, is fully booked and can only offer us one milking per week.  I wonder how long before Mark needs an injection against pneumonia!

On a brigher note, we had our crew from BBC filming us again last Monday.  This time they brought Kay Forester with them.  She's a regular weather girl on East Midlands Today (EMT) who said it was her first time interviewing someone!  She was very good and very pretty.  I had to run upstairs and do my hair and makeup.   We sat in front of my Aga in the kitchen and Kay interviewed me about the weather and the effects it's had on our farm this summer and now.  Later we went out to the calf shed to feed them together.  It took a number of "takes" to do.  Boy those baby calves had so much milk that day, they were very bloated!  I will let you all know when it's on TV, sometime in mid December they said.  Not sure of the title of the programme but it is a local programme with weather in the title.  They also came with me to be filmed whilst doing one of my "Tales from a Farmer's Wife" talks, in Oakham.  I always start with an introduction like "my name is Jane Barnes and I'm married to Mark who's a rare breed"!!  That line will be in the programme for sure!

Sadly we've lost another chicken, so down to four now.  No sign of the carcus so I'm hoping its run away to another friendly home rather than being chased and killed for the fun of it by "charlie the fox"!  Only had two eggs this morning from the remaining chickens, so where are they others laying around the farmyard.

Charlotte and I went hunting with the Cottesmore Hunt yesterday.  The meet was in Sewstern near Buckminster on the Grantham road from Melton.  God it was wet and deep.  We mainly walked over the fields and around the boundary hedges to keep Mr Farmer happy.  Hounds were silent all day though, no sent and no foxes about we think. 

The picture above is me on Nemo who we are currently selling.  We look smart don't we?

As I'm writing this, Beattie the puppy is busy in my waste paper bin, taking out envelopes or A4 sheets of paper and shredding them all over my office floor!  Anyone want documents shredding for free?  Keeps her busy while I'm typing away. 


 

We've found EGGS but still empty nests!

Hurrah!!  This morning we are celebrating our breakfast with our first freshly layed eggs from my 5 hens!  Charlotte and I each had a boiled egg which tasted sweet and fresh, even though they were a little small in our eggcups.  Four eggs found in the straw barn, not in the nesting boxes I've provided for them.  These four little eggs have cost alot of money so far (£50 for buying the hens, £200 for the hen hut plus feed costs)!!!  Ah well, as my daughter commented, we know where they've come from!

It's been a hectic week this week and it's only Thursday.  I've done many talks in Nottinghamshire this week so seem to be going out on the same roads everyday.  It made me think that I don't usually have to commute to work as most others do, driving the same journey everyday, twice a day.  The best thing for me is the return journey home!  I love coming home, to my new puppy waiting for me, to the calves and horses all waiting for me to feed them.  It's a kind of love they all have for me!  Perhaps I'm feeling the "empty nest" syndrome, now may daughter is 18 and totally independent of me and Harry away at boarding school.  So my dear "Beatie" cocker spaniel has filled that gap somewhat, as well as the horses and the baby calves.   I don't think Mark has the same "empty nest" feeling, especially when he comes in for his mealtimes as Beatie jumps all over him and he isn't the greatest dog lover.

New purchases arrived on the farm this week.  We've invested in some rust - as Mark puts it.  A new sheargrab for the John Deere tractor to cut into and grab silage from the clamp then take to the feed troughs.  The top jaw is like a serrated knife and cuts the silage so it has a flat surface face at the clamp.  Meant to keep the clamp face fresher........ or that's what they've told me.  The other new equipment is a dump trailer to do the muck carting from the farmyard to the fields.  I'm not excited about these as much as our boy is down in Somerset.  Keeps texting me, "has it arrived yet Mum?".  He's home in a couple of weeks so guess what he's doing when he comes back!

We've got another school visit tomorrow, although in two groups and shared with Saya in Owston who does the same scheme as we do but for arable farming, it's 65 junior aged children plus teachers and assistants.  Think it could be fun and hope they all wear wellingtons as its very wet today and plenty of puddles around the place.

The milking herd stayed inside last night for the first time, so this is it,  the winter routine has started!  They have still got the option of going out into the fields during the day after morning milking but the grass has lost any fresh growth and no feed value so we're feeding silage daily in the feed troughs.  The milk yield has dropped since mid Sept and we're down by 600 litres.  Makes a big difference especially as we're meant to produce 2000 ltrs daily for Clawson Dairy.  They are desparate for milk and can't get enough at the moment, according to them, the whole country is short of milk.  Funny that when we still only get 27p per litre!

New life on the farm and a feature on East Midlands Today!

May I introduce you to "Beatie" our new puppy.  She's a darling black cocker spaniel and at 10 weeks old, quite a bungle of energy.  It's just like having a new baby in the house.  Only Mark isn't good at babysitting or should that be "puppysitting" when I have to go out.  I will put a photo on my blog page once I've asked daughter how to do it!

Alas, the other recent additions to our farmyard, the chickens, are still not laying!  As my mother is such an expert, I asked for her opinion last weekend and she stated it's because they're not old enough!  Getting quite impatient now as I need eggs to bake cakes with for my Farm Walks refreshments and also for the school children to find them in the nesting boxes!!  Will have to be patient then.

Talking of school children, last week East Midlands Today filmed us for Somerby Primary School visit to the farm on World School Milk Day.  They brought their iPad so they could zap Lady Shamrock's QR code, (which I stencilled on her side for the day) and learn more about the cow and how she produces milk for us.  Lady Shamrock is so used to this attention now, she was calm, stood still and took it all in her stride.  The children behaved for the camera too and some were asked why they like coming to the farm.  Bringing their breaktime milk to drink whilst on the farm, made the item a success.  I was well proud of the overall result!  Next stop Countryfile!!!

Hectic Holidays and Anniversary Treat

Wow, what a busy August and first week of September!  It's our 20th wedding anniversary today, so to celebrate Mark took me out for a Burger King lunch - with Harry on route to Somerset, romance is lost on him.  We took Harry back for his final year at Brymore School.  He is now a Senior Prefect, so has some duties of responsibility, which include looking after the new intake of year 9 boys.

We've also been away for a few days to western Ireland, Gallway and the Connemara mountains.  That was a beautiful quite place although we did spend a large chunk of one day viewing a marvelous herd of dairy cows! (I'm quite used to it now after spending our honeymoon in Scotland visiting herds).

With all the fine weather over the past few days, it was go, go, go on our farm. Fetching bales of straw, for the winter bedding, stacking them in the barn and when that was full, a huge stack of round bales outside!  Using our rather ancient tractors day in, day out, put them under alot of strain - so one broke down on the main road with 24 round bales on the trailer!  After clearing the dirty fuel filter, they got it going again, but it highlights how old our Massey Fergusson is.  Anyway, the boys are happy that all is "safely gathered in" on this farm for another year.

Last week we (Mark, Harry and me) ventured to the NEC to visit the Livestock and Dairy Event show.  We spent most of the day talking to people we already know!  Visiting these wonderful stands of pristine milking plants and robots, wonderful new implements to deal with manure or dirty water, ordering 6 new water troughs and getting a quote for a new youngstock shed, was like supermarket shopping for dairy farmers.  Harry likes spending money we haven't got so the wish list just got longer and longer.  As the event is sponsored by Barclays Bank (our bank) they have the Premier League Cup on display accompanied by two guards!  It was good to have a close up look. 

After a tiring day out, I drove the hour it took to get home with two sleeping boys!  Arrrrrr, they missed their afternoon nap again.  I, on the otherhand, had something to eat, then went straight out again to give a talk to Crick WI that night.

It's all started up again this week.  Four more talks and two farm walks this week so need to keep going.  I've enjoyed having my August break, taking the kids out on their horses competing and seeing old friends.  Charlotte and I are Autumn hunting this Saturday too, so another hunting season approaches.

Olympic pause!!

Sorry guys for not doing any blogs, but the Olympics were unbelievable and I have been glued to the TV for the past two weeks.  All the ironing is up to day though!!

Now they're over, life returns back to normal (or as normal as can be on our farm!)

Our new residents are six white hens, who are not laying yet as they're not quite old enough.  But they've been set free from their pen by daughter Charlotte!  Now they roam around my garden, the neighbours gardens, Mother-in-Laws garden, the hedges along the lanes and anywhere else they can escape too.  I've warned the village shop and village pub, if they see six hens strutting there way along High Street, call me!  Although when it rains, they are all safely gathered in the hen house sheltering, not daft are they?

We also had another visitor last week, of the human kind.  Ursula Stricker from Switzerland stayed with us as an IFYE exchange student.  We were her last family of six, during her stay in the UK.  Many, many moons ago, I was an IFYE exchange student and went to USA for six months where I was hosted by 7 families!!!  It all brought back many happy memories.  Ursula spoke fabulous English and is studying to be a primary school teacher!  Charlotte and Harry have been invited back to Switzerland for some skiing too, as Ursula is a ski instructor especially to children...... that will suit Harry then!

As for the farm, more cows have calved and one even had twins.   Last Sat, Mark asked Harry, me and his brother Simon to fetch a cow and newborn calf in from the field.  By the time we got there, she'd had another calf.  We put the calves in the quad bike trailer and as long as the mother cow sees them, she will follow the trailer all the way home!  Easy peezy!

All for one and one for All - #SOS Dairy

Last night, Mark and I went on a peaceful protest outside Asda chilled distribution plant near Lutterworth.  Probably 100+ farmers and their wives, children and employees, with a dozen tractors and implements, staged a quiet protest blocking the entrance for 4 hours late into the night.    Police were in attendance but no action needed from them.  We are passionate about the state of our industry and we need to stand together on this.  The press have grouped us as the Dairy Coalition!  All for one and one for all!  If we can continue to gain the publics sympathy and support, that's what the retailers are frightened off, loosing customers!

Although many of the major retailers and processors have rescinded their planned price cuts for today, the next step is to secure this for the longer term.  It's very worrying that so many consumers take milk for granted - they will soon shout when there's  none left on the shelves!

If you feel you want to support us, then follow the news as it happens on #SOSdairy on Twitter or blog @SaveUKmilk.  Both will keep you informed of the various stages.

Everything on the farm should be pregnant!!!!

According to my husband, ALL the females on this farm should be pregnant EXCEPT the wife, the daughter and the dog!  And so it be. 

We're "AI"ing cows every day this month, using sexed semen for the Ayrshire's and  hopefully, if they hold they'll be lots of baby heifer calves born next April.  Mulberry, our Ayrshire bull, is still living with 115 ladies, who should be in calf but if in three weeks time they come bulling again, Mulberry should pick them up and serve them "naturally".  Notice how many times I mention "should"!  We're dealing with mother nature here and life sometimes has a different idea.  Will keep you posted as time goes by.

New additions to the farm.  Our hen hut is now occupied with 6 pullet White Leghorn hens.  Harry has done a deal with cousin Ben who's into poultry, and we've been to fetch them today.  I wonder how long before Mr Fox comes to visit? Grandma Barbara loves hens and was delighted with them.  Good, as she might be asked to do alot of "shutting up the hens" especially when Harry goes back to school.

Another new arrival was a new heifer calf born this morning to a home bred heifer cow.  It was her first and they are doing really well.  I've just been out to the barn this evening and stood quietly watching the calf dancing and skipping around the shed whilst mum stood still and watched!  How quickly calves find there feet and run about, just a matter of hours.

At last Summer has arrived over the weekend, and we're all doing the lawns and weeding the over due flower beds.  As we try to sleep with the bedroom windows open, I hear the familiar and constant "mooing" of Doreen, No. 71, who's been separated from her baby today and gone to live with the milking herd.  I apologise now to all our neighbours around this side of the village, who might also be trying to get to sleep!  Don't worry, it won't last more than a couple of nights, and Doreen will have forgotten who she's left in the barn.

Finally, daughter Charlotte (who was named after a cow no less) has started full time work today.  She came home very invigorated and so grown up!  To celebrate, she's taken Harry and herself to the cinema to see the new Batman film.  Now I feel very middle aged as I've had my birthday over the weekend too.

Ohh humbug!

A Happy Husband!

Every Tuesday there's a Cattle Market in Melton and Mark's just come home from taking 6 gorgeous four week old Limousin calves to sell.   They sold well - and six more to go either next Tuesday or the week after.  We sell all the beef calves and only keep the Ayrshire heifer calves for rearing and after two years they become milking cows!

Another reason to be happy is we're drilling for water and found it only 15 foot down!  There's always water on top of a hill - "Jack and Jill went up a hill to fetch a pale of water!"  The plan is to use the borehole water to fill all our cattle troughs throughout the farm.  Thus making a big saving on our water usage and bill!

We're waiting for the first Hereford calves to be born, but as yet, not one has emerged.  Last night an Ayrshire cow No. 71 otherwise known as Doreen,  has produced her second calf and guess what, it was a Limousin again.  Obviously Diesel (the Limi bull) was keener than Ferdinand (the Hereford).  Doreen produced over 8000lts of milk in her first lactation so a very special (cash) cow!

The weather - although wet again yesterday - is forcast for a dryer weekend for the East Midlands.  Boy we need a break!  Harry is filling our tanker of dirty water twice a day to keep on top of keeping it off our yard, like a great big dirty shallow lake.  Harry's been a great help since home from school.  It's costing me though!

As I said, I've got a very happy husband today - makes a change!

Another Wet Friday!!

Just looking at the rain gauge, 25ml (1in) of the wet stuff has fallen on saturated land again today.  At the beginning of milking tonight, there was a "river flow" of rainwater streaming through one doorway to the next!  Sadly, the cows had to walked up the track back to the sodden fields, to munch yet more soggy grass!  How would you like to eat soggy limp lettuce everyday?  Milk yields are dropping!  Come on Almighty God, stop this rain and give us a break!

If it's not the rain, it's the milk price crisis.  NFU and related organisations are working extremely hard to get all us dairy farmers to work together to lobby, protest, shout and scream as much as possible about this crisis in British dairy industry.  Even if the general public wants and is able to pay a bit more for every carton of milk at the supermarkets, how does that extra few pence reach us?  There's always a middle man (processor) who have to take their cut too.  Supermarkets are powerful and there's alot of them.  Processors are squealing too but seem to be happy to pass on the cost down to us who have no one to pass it on to.

One idea is to shoot cows on mass (a few from each dairy farm) which would solve the problem of tipping milk down the drain (illegal as it's a pollutant) and cows are worth more made into beefburgers than producers of milk!  Shocking it would be, but if farmers can't afford to keep them/feed them extra (because of  the wet summer) how else are we going to keep afloat? (no pun intended).  If you want to help us, lobby your MP, write letters to local newspapers, keep talking about it and help to keep this ball rolling to roll further and longer!

Another eventful week ends.   Our EMT broadcast was shown throughout Wednesdays bulletins which coincided with the SOS Dairy Summit in London.  Both myself and Mark had soundbites aired - about the weather mainly - but how we could have got a much better point across about milk price!

BBC East Midlands Today filming on our farm!

Fascinately afternoon's milking, we had a visitor in the parlour.  Tom Brown from the BBC East Midlands Today team,  visit our farm this afternoon, filming Mark and Harry milking our cows, doing a piece for EMT Breakfast bulletins tomorrow!  It's all about the wet weather affecting the cows, muddy gateways, lack of grazing pasture and the knock-on effect for our winter fodder.  As you know, with all this wet weather no hay has been made yet, and what silage we managed to get into the clamp is very wet stuff and low feed value, which means buying in extra dry feed during this winter is a cost we are not in a position to afford.

On another note, Tom had heard about our QR coded cow, and wants to do another piece on that later in the year.  Meanwhile, Mark and Harry are off to the Dairy Crisis Summit at Westminster tomorrow to be among the 2000 plus dairy farmers protesting against the latest price cuts for milk due to come into effect on 1st August.  Unfortunately I've got a school visit to our farm tomorrow, so unable to go to London.

He interviewed me and Mark separately so lets see who makes it on the film and which of us is left on the cutting room floor!

It's Friday and ahrrrrrrrrrrrr.............raining AGAIN!

So cross this morning, raining again, everywhere on the farm is flooding.  Cows hate going out into the driving rain, through those very bottomless gateways!  They will stand under the nearest hedge all day, not grazing!   Whoever think its unhealthy to keep cows inside 24/7 all year round ought to come to our farm today and try working in it and fetch those cows in.   At least if they were inside, they'd be eating fodder and have clean teats.   If they don't graze, they don't eat enough grass to produce milk for the next milking, so less yield and therefore less milk!   Milking takes longer as their teats will be muddy as the drag along through the sinking muddy gateways, so Mark has to wash and wipe every teat prior to putting the unit on.

It's Friday and that means Farmers Weekly day.  Reading it over breakfast this morning was very depressing.  An emergency meeting with dairy producers was held this week in Stafford as another round of milk price cuts hits us all hard again!  For us, it means we are being paid 27p per litre but due to have another price cut next month - not heard what it is yet.  Experts say it costs us 29p per litre to produce!  Another worry!  No wonder Mark and I are turning grey by the day. 

All I want to do is SCREEM at the Supermarkets, who sell milk cheaper than they buy it, cos they can afford to do that and they know its what brings people through their doors to shop.  Why don't they understand how hard its hitting us?  When people ask me what they can do, try to buy British produce wherever possible and don't buy if you're not sure as the Supermarkets only put on the shelves what is selling.  So don't buy imported food!!!

On a lighter note, Harry is back tomorrow from his boarding school in Somerset.  It will be great having another pair of hands on the farm as Marks' parents are away at the moment and we've alot of calves to feed and carrying the milk is heavy on me.  Harry was camping in the Quantock Hills last night as part of  D of  E.  Hope he didn't get washed away down the hills.  Charlotte has gone to London to prepare for her volunteering job at the Olympics.  She travelled alone on the 6am train and making her way to Leicester Square!  She's so grown up now.  It's her 18th next week!

Wet, Wet, Wet!!

Can it get any wetter?  This morning felt like the middle of winter, slush, muck, slurry, water, puddles, sticky gateways and dirty cows!  I felt sorry for the little baby calf born last night in the field to a wet and windy welcome.  Unfortunately it was a bull Ayrshire calf, very nice one, but a male so very disappointed.  Its mother is a very nice animal and it was her first calf so well done to her.  She'll be milked tomorrow as a first time through the parlour.

Talking of calves, we've 12 to feed manually twice a day at the moment, drinking 2 litres each, thats a lot of milk to carry from the parlour to the calf shed.  I feel like a real milk maid carrying my two very full buckets across the yard trying not to spill any.

Daughter has now finished A level exams and is at home alot.  So I've got her doing housework and cooking as I'm outside such a lot helping Mark.  She's waiting for the go ahead to start working full time with a Travel Agent who she's been doing work experience for since February.  Then she's got a shift at our local pub tonight too.

Our son Harry finishes school this Saturday, so home for the summer holidays.  My parents are fetching him for us.  Its Marks 50th birthday this Saturday too!  A milestone for him, but no party as we're flat out on the farm!  Some summer this is turning out to be.

Got to go outside again now and its not raining at the moment. 

Jumping cow has calved today!

 Good News!  Flaming July in the wind and rain, No. 161 who was trying to jump a gate  (see previous blog) has calved today outside at 3.45pm.  Proud mother and baby heifer (female) are now inside a cosy barn to bond, dry off and drink all that lovely colostrum baby calves need within the first few hours of birth.  Mum and baby will stay together until Wednesday, when No. 161 will be milked with the milking herd through the parlour and baby calf will join the others in the expanding nursery barn.  Then its up to muggins here to feed her twice a day, two litres morning and night!

Now this sounds easy, but for the first few days, we have to get into the pen with a over-large bottle with a 10cm rubber teat and man handle them to drink!

We've given No. 161 a bottle of calcium through a needle under the skin, to keep her from getting milk fever, as some older cows may suffer from straight after calving. 

All this in front of todays visiting group of 20 members of Bingham U3A Amblers walking group braving the weather and were very appropriately clothed.  How exciting for them!  My first on farm calving in front of visitors.  No. 161 didn't mind as she's had 5 other calves before so its nothing new to her!

Cow & Gate!

Jumping Cows on Southfields Farm

This cow was trying to get back to her friends!  She's heavily in calf and due any day soon, so Mark was moving her closer to our farm buildings but she had a different idea!

All was well though, as we lifted her off with the loader tractor.  She hadn't even broken the wooden gate.

Will let you know when she calves!

A hatch, a match and a despatch!

Last Saturday we had a very emotional day!  First of all, I helped Mark calve a cow who needed help.  Luckily the cow and calf were both fine and healthy so we left them to "bond" in the pen for the rest of the day.   A quick visit to our parish church at lunchtime to see a lovely new bride and groom emerge and travel by pony and trap was the "match" of the day.  Then unfortunately, our lovely terrier dog, Polly, who was over 13 yrs of age, died on Saturday afternoon, so we found ourselves burying her in our garden. She was the despatch!  So a hatch, a match and a despatch all in the space of 4 hours.  Farewell Polly, rest in peace my darling friend.

Lady Shamrock's claim to fame

Well here we go, this is my first attempt at a blog from our dairy farm in Somerby. We are one of the very few dairy farms still going currently, and even through the hard work, we are proud of our business! I am hoping (through the delights of technology!!), this blog will enable all of you to understand as well as enjoy stories from the farm.

All in all, we have 120 cows, along with 15 adorable Ayrshire calves we are hoping to rear for the future. My husband Mark, who was earlier called Mike on the local radio station (keep reading for that story...), is the farmer who milks them twice a day.  I basically faf around and keep the business afloat in the office department, walking the cows across the road after milking, feeding baby calves and scrapping out when needed along with anything else my husband bosses me around to do.

 Very exciting news this morning, one of our cows, Lady Shamrock, made her claim to fame on the local radio station due to sporting a QR code!!  Here she is with her newborn calf.  Take a look at the website www.thisisdairyfarming.com to check out her views!

Now got to go, as 29 visitors are due in an hour on a farm visit, oh good its just started to rain again!
Keep reading for more tales from a farmers wife.