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.