TB Testing. A testing time!

Happy, happy day!  Thrilled at this mornings news.  Our vet William, came this morning to read the TB test results on the cows, youngstock and bulls.  All were clear! 

Huge relief felt by all of us.  Now we can get on and turn some stock out to grass!  Enough of all this work, bedding, feeding and feeling tired!  Then we can get to the smelly jobs like muck carting all the dung out of the sheds and heap in the field to rot down until Autumn.  Fertiliser coming this week so we can spread on the silage fields, helping it to grow into lush green leafy silage for next winters feed.   Although we've had a long winter, we still have some straw and silage bales left.  So that will keep until next winter. 

Tuesday was market day in Melton and Harry helped Mark take 8 baby calves and a cull cow.  They came back happy with the sales and much needed injection of cash income.  These calves were either beef breeds (Aberdeen Angus, Hereford) or Ayrshire bull calves.  The oldest was 4 weeks a bull calf made £82 each and the heifer calves made £70 a piece.  The Ayrshire bull calves were only 2-3 weeks old but still made a respectable £32 each. (Better than culling them I suppose).  The milking cows have picked up their yield although we're very below our predicted targets for April so far.

Todays typical April showers but with very gusty winds means the land is drying out rapidly.  Harry has a brand new John Deere tractor on trial this week and is spending many hours rolling the fields.  It has all the modern knobs and whistles that probably only Harry is excited about.  Sadly it will have to go back on Friday as we've certainly no funds to buy it.  Harry goes back to school next Monday too.  He's been such a useful help these past three weeks.  I know we're paying him by the hour now but his attitude and interest has certainly been better than before.  We've also had his Maths GCSE result today and he's passed his Maths and so pleased with himself.  A real boost to his confidence ahead of all the other GCSE's to do this term.

Yesterday we three visited Reaseheath College near Nantwich, Cheshire for his interview.  They were happy to give him a conditional place and the Maths result helps enourmously with that.  So come September he'll be enrolled on the "sandwich" course, year at college, year out on farm (working) and year back at college.  Really pleased as punch for him.

Cows let out today for the first time!

We've given up on Spring arriving by the calendar date.  Our cows were allowed out into the field for a couple of hours after morning milking and boy did they skip and jump their way up the track.  Although the fields are fairly dry now thanks to the east wind, there is definitely no grass growing out there!  Even so, the cows had a hop, skip and a jump and seemed pleased to be let out of their winter housing.  Doesn't do the milk yield any good though as they spent most of the time playing about rather than eating.  They were brought back in by 11.30am and sulked!  I feel like doing that most days at the moment.

Isn't it funny, I feel exactly the same as the cows.  We're so in tune with them, I'm sure we have the same emotions.  Last Friday, the sun was out and I raced about doing housework, cleaning the kitchen and back kitchen floor thoroughly (almost a total Spring Clean).  Hung washing on the line, tidied up the log shed and dustbins and the mound of snow still stacked outside our back door (it's due north so never sees the sun).  In fact we still have loads of snow under the hedgerows and along side the lanes where it drifted.  Then the next day it was dull and I didn't do much and just wanted to sit by the fireside all day trying to keep warm.

Back to work this week with a bang.  Seven talks this week in four days.  Just hosted my first Farm Walk for 2013 this afternoon and although the sun was out, it was bitter cold on top of Telly Tubby Hill - the highest spot on our farm with fabulous views.  My visitors were from Arnold in Nottingham and I did mention they'd need to wrap up warmly for the visit as we're always 10 degrees colder than anywhere else.  They enjoyed seeing Mark milk the cows and helping with feeding the baby calves.  We've got 18 babies that we feed fresh warm milk to twice a day and a newborn arrived this morning.  I think there's 10 Ayrshire heifer calves so far which we'll rear on farm and the rest are either bulls or beef calves so will go to market to be sold.

Harry's home and very useful too!  Noel is feeling low with the cold and not so well in himself at the moment.  He's 82 and its been a VERY long winter!  Charlotte and I have a chesty cough and my mother-in-law is limping as due to have a new knee this summer!  Only Mark is keeping going as he has too.  No choice.

Roll on warmer weather.