Farm Diary

THE perfect spring? Well is not far from it and with some timely rain arriving it just gets better and better. We have turned some of the cows out, and hope to gain access across the building site before too long in order to access the bulk of our grazing area.
By The Newsroom
Published 27th Apr 2009, 10:21 BST
Updated 8th Jun 2018, 04:05 BST

Most of the fields will be cut for silage due to our delayed turn out, and there is grass everywhere. Grass growth has taken off in the last two weeks, and some of our silage fields are going flat; in April! I booked the contractors for the 10th of May (weather allowing), and it does not look a day too early this year.

We have been working flat out on the maize ground and we have now drilled around 500 acres. It has gone in well and conditions have been perfect. All the clay ground is drilled, with the final run to the end fairly easy.

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It was my weekend on, and we had trouble. On Saturday I noticed that one of the cows in the calving pen was making little progress, not even pushing. On inspection, we found that she had a 'torsion'; the calf could be felt below the cervix, indicating that this was a job for our veterinary surgeon. He confirmed that it was in fact 360 degrees, but with manipulation, managed to turn the calf around, and delivered a healthy Belgian Blue heifer calf.

He congratulated us on our judgment in calling him straightaway, and not messing around ourselves, only to find we could not get the job done. As the cow and calf had not been subjected to any prolonged stress, they were both fit and well.

For full feature see West Sussex Gazette April 29

Related topics:West Sussex Gazette