A new recruit

Tuesday, January 8th, 2008

A lot has happened over the holiday period. Following the pregnancy tests we found that Petal is in calf for the fourth time. Our oldest cow is also carrying her eleventh calf and is fit and well.

Christmas day I was up with the girls at 4am and all was calm. The excitement began on Boxing Day when I arrived to find four of the heifers struggling to keep their heads above some slurry in one of the soil lagoons. They had climbed on top of a pile of silage and slipped into the lagoon. I had to get in the JCB and dig them out by taking down the lagoon wall while the heifers floated out with it. We all got a bit of a fright and I had to put them in a deep-bedded yard with lots of straw to calm them down. The cows had to patiently wait a good hour longer than usual to be milked and were clearly disapproving of the ‘teenage’ high jinks that had gone on.

New Year’s Eve saw the birth of a healthy female calf, named Eve for obvious reasons. My wife Marion does all the christenings.

We have an new enthusiastic recruit. Sixteen-year-old Tom had previously done some work experience on the farm and enjoyed it so much he has decided to come back. He is showing lots of promise and is now involved in milking, scraping out and suckling calves.

I hope he gets as much pleasure out of his job as I do.