Sundays Past and Present

Family day out August 2017

Brian and I were discussing recently how Sundays have changed since we were children, not to mention how Sundays have changed since we were PAYE workers. Regarding the latter, Sunday was either a day for decorating followed by a dinner in a local pub or a day to head to somewhere like the New Forest for a pub lunch and a long walk. When I was a student in the UK, I got a job in Sainsbury’s on Sunday mornings, [...]

Low Fertility, All Bull

Red, the second Hereford bull

About 14 years ago, I was teaching Communication Studies at a third level college. I brought a t-shirt into one seminar, asking students  to discuss how they would regard a person wearing it as it bore the slogan “High Fertility, No Bull”. I didn’t show them the front which showed the logo of the Artificial Insemination company but as it happened, I don’t think they would have recognised the name anyway as none came from farms. Their interpretations were varied [...]

Me and my Dad

Me and my dad - 1970

When I think back over my childhood in terms of farming, it’s my dad who features in most of my memories. Even though I wasn’t the kind of kid who lived for farming (I lived for books to be honest), I spent a lot of time with him – because he was a farmer.

Lots of dads spend more time now with kids than they used to, it’s often dads that bring the children to activities, they bath them, they read [...]

Stand And Deliver

2016-10-08 10.13.48

We don’t expect too much of the delivery men (I say men because I can’t recall ever seeing a woman making a delivery here). Okay, it does say DELIVER TO YARD in block letters under our address on all deliveries from Buyrite – as they can be quite heavy and it makes extra work for us if they deliver to the front door rather than the farmyard. One delivery guy is really helpful and friendly, gives us a wave to [...]

My Farming & Writing Week: Calves, Calf Hutches & Press Coverage

Going for a ride in a calf barrow in my new red coat

Calf Rearing

The calving season is progressing well and is keeping me busy. I started this post three weeks ago and am only getting back to it now.

The calving season started, as usual, with one cow calving a few days earlier than predicted but he wasn’t on his own for long. As the calving house filled up with more cows, it never ceases to surprise me how much cows will fight when re-introduced to each other. We had them housed in [...]