I have spent most of the last week as a steward at The Royal Bath and West of England Show.

After hearing of the cancellation of the last day of Devon County Show, and an iffy weather forecast, I was just a little worried about what might happen.

Fortunately my fears were unfounded, as although the Wednesday was damp and chilly, we did not have enough rain to cause any problems.

On the other three days there was a mixture of cloud, often a cool breeze , an occasional glimpse of sunshine , but fortunately only one storm late Thursday afternoon.

Life on the Village Green section of the show is jolly, helped by a team of volunteer stewards who spend their time making sure that everything runs smoothly.

I am glad to say that this year we did not have any lost children. There was a very good display of wrought iron work, beautifully presented among sprays of arranged cut flowers and as usual the farriers competition attracted huge crowds to the forge during the entire show.

In the village school marquee there were displays with an ocean theme, put together by some local pre-schools. The materials used showed great imagination, from a papier-mache lobster to a paper plate crab, with great use of colours and many other materials.

The WI was serving refreshments in its marquee, with an area devoted to craft demonstrations, such as crochet, knitting, quilting and pottery painting, which attracted a great deal of interest.

The bakery, next to the village shop, makes the most delicious breads and buns, which I am afraid to say we had to sample every day.

The village fair makes a colourful spectacle, with children riding on carousel horses, sliding down the helter-skelter and trying their luck at the coconut shy or one of the other stalls.

The village church marquee was always full of people having a chat and a cup of tea, and was decorated with some beautiful pedal-stool size flower displays. I must not forget to mention all the entertainers, including a clown, Punch and Judy shows, Morris dancers, choirs, drummers, gymnasts, martial artists and majorettes.

Here on Manor Farm, Richard and Ian have replaced some worn blades in the straw chopper, trimmed some cows hooves and run the young heifers through a cattle crush, where some fly repellent was poured onto their backs.

Ian has also been spraying some of the recently cut grass fields with a herbicide to kill some of the buttercups. The fields of buttercups do look rather beautiful, especially the Meadow Buttercup, which can grow to 90cm in height, producing a blaze of colour between May and July. The juice of all buttercups is acrid and poisonous to stock, but due to its bitter taste is rarely eaten. If fed accidentally, it can cause serious problems.

During the week it was time again to do the milk recording, collecting and sending away individual milk samples for analysis. The results showed that yields of milk are good and but cell counts (a measure of udder infection) have increased in a few cows. These cows are always milked last and if possible kept separate from the others.

The grass this year seems to be going through the cattle a little faster than usual, so we are adding some straw to the diet to try and bind things up a little.

Meanwhile, Matt has been trimming some of the lush vegetation away from the electric fences, so that they work properly.

On Stowell Farm, the rams and teasers (vasectomised rams) have been sheared, vaccination of the lambs has now been completed, the ewes treated with a fly repellent and their feet trimmed if necessary.