Even though farms vary in size and type, there’s still lots of typical things that happen to a farm wife or indeed, a farmer. If you’ve just married a farmer and aren’t quite sure what to expect, here’s 5 hints!
“No, you won’t need wellies” he says when asking you to stand in a gap for 5 minutes before you head to town so you chance going up the yard in your “town” jeans and shoes. It will be the [...]
It’s been a wet week here in the sunny south east. The fire has been lit again, cattle have been brought back indoors, calves have been kept in, the cows are messing up fields and coming in to the parlour in most disgruntled moods only slightly mollified by the promise of yummy nuts in the parlour. 5 ‘stragglers’ have calved in the last ten days, all giving birth to bulls which is bound to even up our bull : heifer [...]
I used to be a reasonable baker.
I quite like baking as you can put everything into the mixture, put in the oven and just presume it will turn out alright. If it doesn’t, there’s nothing you can do about it at that stage. That’s what I liked about it – there was no expectation that this seasoning or that herb could be added during the cooking to improve the taste. Mix, put in oven, eat. Simple.
Before children, I hardly ever [...]
Between the bank holiday for St Patrick’s Day, the children being off school for two days and the fact that I wasn’t doing any training or mentoring, I’ve had a pretty full on farming week. I’m doing 2.5 days of training next week and I know I’ll probably end up with a croaky voice as a result. Teaching requires a lot more talking than the occasional chat with calves and cattle!
16 cattle went to the factory on Wednesday morning [...]
101 calves born, two deaths but a very good calving season so far. We still have to work out our sexed semen success and our heifer : bull ratio – at last count we were about 56 dairy heifers, 5 beef heifers and the rest in bulls so the ratio is pretty good. Here’s my nine commandments for successful calf rearing – well, it’s keeping me going and the calves thriving!
Patience is [...]
