AT Manor Farm, muck-spreading is well underway, with James and Nathan spreading this onto grass fields to aid growth. The grass is growing well and the colour of the fields is slowly changing from dark green to a vibrant carpet of new life. Hopefully, spring is just around the corner. The liquid part of this muck was also spread on the fields which we hope to plant our maize crops in, as this will provide vital nutrients and nitrogen.

Ian has been repairing some fences which were broken by deer. It is important to make sure that fencing is routinely inspected for damage, as a small break can easily become a much larger and more expensive problem. This is particularly important as livestock will be going out to pasture soon.

When calves are born, farmers must apply for a passport straight away which will accompany this animal throughout its life. It will match the calf’s ear tag number and any movements onto or off a holding will be recorded on the passport. With the influx of bull calves recently, Ian has been applying for passports on a daily basis.

The vet has been on their routine visit, this time doing pregnancy diagnosis. Although some cows were not in calf, Ian was already aware of this as he has seen these cows bulling, which indicates they have not held to service.

Every six months, a technician arrives to replace the milking clusters in the parlour. These are the parts of the machine that directly attach to the cow's teats to milk her. They are automatically washed out after every cow has been milked to ensure the highest standards of hygiene are maintained and again at the end of milking. The clusters require replacing simply due to wear as they are used every day, twice a day, multiplied by 120 cows!

Lastly, Natalie will be milk recording on Sunday. Samples of milk are taken from each cow for analysis of somatic cell count, protein and fat content. This time, a bulk sample will be taken for bovine viral diarrhoea (BVD) analysis, which has to be done annually. BVD is a viral disease of cattle and other ruminants that is caused by the bovine viral diarrhoea virus. BVD is a common cause of respiratory and reproductive issues in the herd. It is an economically important disease in this country and there are now many schemes rolled out nationally to eradicate it.

At Stowell Farm the main flock of ewes are now lambing, meanwhile the Signet-recorded flock have finished and Melissa has got the orphan lambs from these ewes on bottles. These will be bottle fed. During this time they will have access to pellets, hay and water.

As they start to eat more pellets three bottle feeds a day will be reduced to two. This will usually happen between three to four weeks of age. They will then at about six weeks old go down to once a day and then finally the milk will be stopped.

During this week, a TB test was undertaken on the cattle, which was not our annual test, but had to be done due to a neighbouring farm having a breakdown of the disease, which meant we have had to have our cattle tested. Luckily this was a clear test.

Having the agronomist out at the end of last week Kevin has now been given recommendations for the first applications of nitrogen and sulphur for the crops. However, the ground needs to dry out more before he will be able to travel across the fields.

Denise will be back next week, having returned from her travels, which I am sure she will share with you all in next week's article.