Can't be September already?

Having a busy summer is a poor excuse for not being able to do a blog since May!  Today is the first day of September, officially Autumn!  Although we've not had a lot of hot, sizzling sunshine, the weather we've had over Somerby has been ideal for grass growing.  My husband says that if we get a shower of rain once a fortnight, it will keep us in grass through the summer.  And it has been just that.  Spot on.    As you know I now measure grass growth weekly using my plate meter, and two weeks ago was the lowest grass growth in a week so far this year, but last week (after a fair amount of rain) has been better!

A new bull arrived this summer - meet Real Deal (akas Dickenson's Real Deal - Dicky for short)  He's bred in Canada and arrived in the UK as an embryo.  He's over a year old now and running with similar aged heifers for them to calve next May/June when they turn two years old!!  More milking cows all homebred, to add to our enlarging herd!

As a consequent of all the moisture this summer, our herd has enjoyed grazing a fresh paddock after each milking, nibbling the new shoots of growth, keeping our yields up and quality too.  We're milking 140 (most of our herd) so it takes a little longer because they're giving much more milk than last year.  Also 36 first time heifers calved in June which was an extremely busy period for Mark, David (our relief milker) and myself - Chief Calf Rearer.

August has been a busy month for Farm Walks too and many groups of WI's or Probus groups have enjoyed visiting the farm seeing the many baby calves and watching the cows being milked in the parlour.  I love showing people around the farm and answering their questions but probably the highlight of the visit is the afternoon tea and cakes to finish!

Talking of afternoon teas - we've had two major birthdays during July. Charlotte turning 21 and my 50th! (Yes, I know I don't look it!!!!)  One extremely kind gift received was an afternoon tea at Stapleford Park which we undertook last week - wow, diet got pushed aside for that event I can tell you!

Our son Harry (now 18) finished his placement year in early July and has been a much valued help at home!  Mowing grass for hay, turning it and carting & stacking it after a contractor baled it for us.  Spreading fertiliser and topping pasture with the new mower!  He's waiting for straw bale carting and stacking now, if it ever stops raining for the combines to get going again!  Then its back for his final year at Reaseheath College later on this month, so all change again on the farm.

Charlotte has been working really hard running her own business, a livery yard since she returned from her Australia and New Zealand trip.  She's also got her own horse competing again after his injury earlier this year.  I enjoy spending time with them both and love competing every weekend!  I try and help her out when I can which makes a nice change for me from the moo moos!

Often visitors ask me if Mark and I manage to get away for a holiday each year.  Yes we do especially now Charlotte and Harry are around it's much easier for us to get away so we nipped off to Lynton and Lymouth in Exmoor for a week at the end of July, in a quite cliff top hotel.  A most magical and peaceful place.  Loved it.

Looking forwards, more cows due to calve at the end of September and October, so more babies to rear and the diary is filling up nicely with bookings for my Farm Talks for the rest of this year and into the next.  No doubt if you're reading this, you've probably met me at a talk or even been on a Farm Walk.  Please feel free to pass on my details to anyone else who might be interested in the life of a Dairy Farmer's Wife!!  Reasonable rates and bookings welcome!!

Spring into springtime!

Currently away from the farm this week attending for the third time the National Ayrshire Cattle Conference in the beautiful county of Cumberland!  Up north on the borders of Scotland,  we're spending the daytime visiting several well bred herds of pedigree Ayrshires and spending the evenings socialising at the bar before dinner and usually afterwards too.

It's great to get off the farm for a break but especially this year as our children (if you can call them that now they're 20 & 18) to look after everything. So pleased and extremely proud of them even though Mark has phoned home at least once a day especially as we're in the middle of our spring calving block. We've had 11 out of our 38 new heifers calved so far and probably 30 of the milking cows. Only problem is we've had more bull calves than heifers. Milk yields are up on this time last year,  grass is growing well and plenty of it. Now that milk quotas have gone, no limit to production so pleased with our new grazing system. We've also built a new track to the fields and done miles of electric fencing and the cows have adapted well.

Getting back to the Conference. We are staying at the fabulous Crown Hotel in Wetheral near Carlisle  and it's very pleasant indeed. The large comfortable bed and relaxed surroundings are making our visit most enjoyable. Not to mention the contents of the bar each evening!

NEW Year, NEW Beginnings!

So what has 2015 got NEW for us this year?

NEW Milk Price for a start - It made headline news yesterday.  It's official.  Milk is now cheaper than bottled water!  How can that be?  Farmers, consumers and pundits all aired their views via Facebook and Twitter (of which I follow #teamdairy, #discoverdairy, #DairyCrisis) and it even made half an hour on the Jeremy Vine lunchtime programme on Radio 2!  Simon Mayo played songs for dairy farmers in his Drivetime early evening show!  Articles have made it into The Daily Telegraph, The Mirror and countless others!

NEW Enterprise - Having heard a criticism on the radio that dairy farmers aren't good a marketing or branding their products like they have done with bottled water.  So we're doing something about it.  We have decided to sell our milk at the farm gate!  We have got the approval from the Food Standards Agency so we've bought litre sized bottles and intend to fill them with fresh milk from the tank and sell at £1 each.  The all important branding and logo (seen right) says exactly what it is!  This milk is not pasteurised - so totally whole, farm fresh and proper healthy milk.  Just Milk, Just Healthy!

NEW Facebook Page -  this is very new.  Today with the help of my sister Susan, I've built a FB page for Just Milk Somerby (there's already a site for Just Milk - so don't get us mixed up)  and learning to market it, the 21st century way - Social Media!    To join the page tap in Just Milk Somerby and follow us!  I will add plenty of photos of the moo moos, especially the baby calves and some of the new bulls on the farm.

NEW Bulls on the farm -  Hello to Bandit and  Paddington!  Goodbye to Windfall and Oreo!  Bandit and Paddington are the same age (not quite two years) and share the same pen.  They're good mates!  Bandit is pure bred Ayrshire (red and white) and Paddington is an Aberdeen Angus so black all over with the cutest head full of curls and a friendly face!  They take it in turns to run with the herd of cows!  We're in bulling season at the moment then the bulls will have a rest from the beginning of February until May/June.   We had to say goodbye to Windfall and Oreo, who were over 3 years of age, as they had done their duty on our farm.  (We have to move the bulls on after two years as they can't run with their daughters can they?)

NEW Lowest Number of Dairy Farmers in England and Wales - at the beginning of this new year, the total has now dropped to below 10,000.   By comparison, back in 2001 (F&M year remember?) there were 20,191 dairy farmers and today we're down to 9,960.  Sixty dairy farmers went out of cows in the month of December alone!  If the trend continues, we could see further drops in numbers to 5,000 by 2025!  That's only 10 years away and I should be retiring by then!  But it's OK, we're not planning to give up quite that easily.  Anyhow,  we've got Harry (18yrs) who's been bred for the job!!!

New Year, New Beginnings and New Hope for the Future.  We've got to stay positive and keep doing what we're good at! 

Producing farm fresh - high quality - totally
BRITISH MILK.

                      Here's a cute photo to finish with!  A couple of this years heifer calves!  The Future!