March 2010

Roy in snowAs usual the winter months have been a very busy time for us, but the snow certainly made things more difficult.

We were caught out a bit with the first batch of snow before and during Xmas, meaning that I had to go back to battling through the snow to feed the cows out on the hills which had been finishing off the last of the grazing.

I have spent a lot of time just trying to keep the farm road clear of snow to get up and down the road with silage and to trailer corn in for the sheep we had inside, having to meet delivery wagons on the main road and often having to tow them out of the road side snow afterwards. One part of our lane drifts very badly and the job of clearing the snow with the tractor was a daily routine for a time. The resulting piles of snow snowy hillbecame higher than the tractor. My dear sister managed to get stuck on Castleshaw banking on Christmas eve morning (just before the shop opened for Turkey collections) with the rest of the family blocked in behind her. Anyone that knows Castleshaw banking will know it is a single road with a drop on one side and a reservoir on the other, so as I was the on the ‘right’ side I had to dash round in the tractor and proceed with the difficult task of towing her out before the shop opened!

Having managed to get almost all the cattle inside in their new sheds I have since been developing a routine of mucking out, strawing down and feeding the cattle. Though it is definitely much less arduous for both me and the cattle, having them inside, it is still a lot of work and very time consuming, as they now need to be kept clean and beaded down with straw. With all our cattle inside apart from a few youngsters that is a lot of straw.

cowTo aid the new system of having the cows inside I have been gradually working to set up machines and equipment to help manage the jobs that need doing. Having spruced up the old David Brown tractor that I bought last summer I now have a good little tractor for nipping in and around the building to scrape muck around and cart silage and straw through the narrow gaps, combined with muck grabs and scraper attachments made up from old scrap equipment that I managed to acquire.

The most valued bit of equipment I have at my disposal is undoubtedly the straw chopper that we managed to get hold of. As I said the cows need a LOT of straw and to bed the cows down by hand with the massive rectangular bales we have would take me a long long time. This machine is almost like a snow blower trailer. Running off the tractor the machine gradually chews its way through the big bale and blasts shredded straw into the air and over the cattle bay within a couple minutes. I must admit though it took me a while to get to grips with all the complex operating levers to use the machine as well as adjusting my aim. The first time I tried to blast some straw into one part of the building my view from the tractor was blocked and afterwards I got off the tractor to see that most of the straw was actually stuck up cows grazingin the rafters of the roof.... Ohh dear!

A few weekends ago my wife and I had a trip down to South Wales to collect two new bulls to bring some new blood into the heard. The young bulls from the Morlais polled (no horns) heard are not quite mature yet, but will be by the time we need to introduce them to the cows, and being from one of the top breeders in Wales they should help us to keep producing good replacement cattle to maintain our heard. Medi and Madryn settled in nicely to their winter bachelor pad and are very placid, but judging from their curious nature I’m sure they will be keen to get out and explore the farm as soon as the grass starts growing.


roy againI now have a new topic to add to Roy’s list of ‘likes’. He most definitely does like snow very very much. Usually being very laid back about everything, he goes absolutely crackers over this fluffy white stuff he can run about in and eat and roll around in. At least somebody enjoyed the snow!