January 2009

feeding-cattleAfter a hectic Christmas time selling trees and turkeys at the shop, my work has been mainly focused on the farm over the last few weeks, as winter is a busy time of year.
Much of my time is spent carting bales of silage to the cattle around the farm to keep them fed while the grass is thin on the ground and I can be seen driving up onto the moor like the Pied Piper with a string of cows running after me!  Bizarrely I now find myself wishing for the recent cold and frost to return, as it is much easier for me to get the feed to the cattle when the ground is
frozen and not turning to mud.

feeding-troughAs you can see down at the shop, we have again got a few early arrivals in form of new lambs.  After making the mothers-to-be some new feed troughs and setting up the winter accommodation for them, those appearing ready to lamb are now in residence along with those who have already lambed.  There is certainly no danger of them going hungry either, as we got a little more than we bargained for when we ordered some hay and straw for them.  When the massive articulated wagon turned up at the shop the other day, I had a busy couple of hours trying to unload and cram the big bales into our shed and the sheep now have a mountain of hay and straw to chomp through over winter.