All work and no play!

It's been a bad week!  Firstly, Monday we said goodbye to 4 barren cows (2 old Friesians and 2 young Ayrshires) after the vet had been the previous week to PD (pregnancy diagnosis) test about 30 dry cows.  Happy the two Friesians were going as they had worked hard producing calves and therefore milk for the past ten years or so.  But the younger Ayrshires had only had one calf!  Monday also saw the arrival of the first snow of the winter.

Tuesday, the snow was still with us and as we'd had a frost overnight too, the milking parlour froze up taking half an hour to defrost before morning milking could start.  Mark also found another Ayrshire cow looking poorly and called the vet out.  She wasn't going to get any better after suffering grass staggers in Sept and not really recovering from it, so we said goodbye to her.

Wednesday - the snow still on the ground and frosty overnight again, so more to defrost in the milking parlour and all the water troughs for the cows, youngstock and calves needed sorting too.  My horses go out into the field for some excercise and fresh air(!) to stetch their legs but soon want to come back inside to hay and shelter.  Still suffering from mud fever on their legs too, so best to keep in the dry.  During the morning, Mark noticed an older Friesian had fallen over when Ferdinande tried to mount her.  The cow had broken her leg so end of the road for her.  Another goodbye cow!

Thursday morning, Mark found ANOTHER Ayshire lying dead in the cubicle shed! What's happening this week????  That's 7 cows gone in one week!  Luck is not on our side at the moment.  Mark is constantly milking and feeding and cleaning out cows with very little let up.  The current weather isn't helping, just slows all the jobs down.  Lauren comes in every morning to help Mark but still so much to do.

Friday - Noel's 82nd Birthday!  How does he keep going?  Out every morning come rain or shine!  Alert, keen and to some extend still 'able' at his age!  He still drives the tractors and climbs on and off with no problems.  Feeding the milk to baby calves is his joy everyday, twice a day.

Snowing again!  Forecast for more on Sunday.  I know its winter and we should expect it, but life down on our farm is getting tougher by the day.  Roll on Spring!