A Month on the Farm

by Lisa Buchanan

~ July ~

This month has left us positively breathless! Leighton has been flying around to Shows with Dougie, the baby bull (15 months old) and Poppy (his half-sister), starting with Heathfield, then Suffolk and most recently, the South of England. Dougie has excelled himself, being Reserve Male Champion at every show, which is quite an achievement for a little fellow. Poppy has not been quite so successful – she isn’t quite as tall as others in her class and hasn’t the necessary amount of flesh on her (although she is eating madly now to see if she can catch up – nice problem to have!). Nevertheless, she has pulled in a second, a third and a fourth.

We had some cows left to calve thanks to the bull being off games for a week when he should have been doing his job (he tweaked his back), and two decided the best time to do it was during the South of England Show at midnight one night and 1.30a.m. the next.

The first cow decided she was too posh to push and simply didn’t get on with it. After some struggling, there was nothing for it but to call the brilliant Fairfield House vets and Phoebe, after some effort from the three of us, pulled out the most enormous bull calf. I feared he wouldn’t make it, but with some urgent care he sparked into life. Often big bull calves take a while to get going and this fellow – nicknamed ‘Titch’ – was no exception so I had to tube him four times a day for three days to keep him going until the light bulb went on and he started to suck.

The second cow produced another huge bull calf, which Leighton and I managed to pull out. He was just fine. Having been born on Dad’s birthday, we have named him ‘Bill’. Obviously it is early days, but they do look tremendous animals so they shall stay as bulls for the foreseeable future – they might be a Show champion one day and, more importantly, they will hopefully make us good money as young bulls for another herd.

The rain has been such a Godsend and the grass is responding well, although it isn’t as thick as we would like. The lack of certainty about grass growth means we have had to make the difficult decision to sell our youngstock early this year and not finish them for Waitrose. We will sell within the Waitrose supply chain so we know they will receive topnotch standards of care. They look great so we are hoping for a fair price. The cattle yards have all been mucked out and we are now engaged in power-washing them. Every year we want them completely clean to diminish the risk of bacteria harbouring in the buildings over the Summer and rearing their heads when the cattle go back in. We also don’t like dirty yards!

One of the many joys of this time of year is watching the swallows diving in the fields. With longer grass there is a constant supply of bugs flying upwards as the cattle move through the paddocks. Happy bugs (until some are munched!), happy cattle and happy swallows! Another example of why regenerative farming is so good for Nature!

Lisa Buchanan