FOLLOWING the severe storm at the end of last week the weather has been somewhat calmer. In fact it has been quite pleasant with plenty of warm sunshine.

At last Kevin has been able to harvest all his winter wheat, but with the sun slowly getting lower in the sky, misty mornings and shortening day length, it was difficult to find times during the days when the moisture was below 15 per cent.

This means that most of the grain will have to be dried, which will obviously be an added cost.

Unfortunately the price paid for feed wheat in the UK has recently fallen to below £100 per tonne, so with a drying charge the outlook is not good. Following harvest, Richard took our baler over to Stowell Farm to bale some of the straw into small bales.

These will be used to bed up individual pens at lambing time. The rest of the straw has been baled into large rounds, to be used to bed up the covered yards during the winter.

Here on Manor Farm spreading manure and cultivating ground ready for planting has continued throughout the week. Harry, a local farmer has decided that he would like to grow some more oilseed rape in three of our arable fields. One of the fields has had to be ploughed to bury the "trash", but the other two fields have been prepared for planting using just a cultivator, this is known as min till.

There are advantages and disadvantages for minimum tillage, advantages being less soil erosion and reduced fuel and labour costs,but it can lead to a greater dependence on herbicides.

While walking around our farm during the week I noticed that the forage maize we are growing to feed our cows now stands well above my height.

Maize produces a high quality silage for dairy, beef and sheep. In the diet it will increase forage intake of our dairy cows, which will increase milk yield and milk protein.

This can reduce the amount of supplementation we feed, so improving profitability.

New varieties of maize are constantly being developed, which grow well in the UK, but it is important to select a variety to suit the growing conditions of the site and whether it should be early or late maturing.

Forage maize yields about 40 tonnes per hectare of fresh material, with a dry matter of 30 per cent, but fresh yield can be as high as 60 tonnes per hectare.

During the week our 12 month old heifers were freeze branded to make them easily identifiable. Especially useful at this time of year, when sorting dry cows in a field which need to be brought back to the farm buildings for a pre- calving diet, with many other times having a brand to read making life easier.

For freeze branding, liquid nitrogen or dry ice and alcohol are used to cool branding irons.

This process will alter the behaviour of the hair follicles of an animal to remove the pigmentation. Within three months of branding the hair on the site will fall out and will be replaced with white hair. This colouration is permanent. All cattle are also identified with the use of ear tags.

Each animal has to have two, one in each ear. These can both be plastic or one plastic and one metal, but two metal tags are not allowed. Displayed on each tag is the country of birth, the farm ID number and the animals individual number.

We brand our cattle using the last three or four digits of their individual numbers.

This year I have noticed more starlings in our garden and around the farm.

Starlings are flocking birds, which are noisy and aggressive, often bullying other birds on their feeding grounds. They can be a nuisance around farm buildings, which they can foul with droppings.

Numbers are swollen at this time of year as many more arrive from the continent to take advantage of our mild winter climate.

However when preparing to roost they gather in a vast flocks (murmurations), swooping and swirling in the evening skies. It's a wonderful sight.