PONY Club Instructional Week was blighted by another very wet day but all the children seemed to enjoy themselves despite the weather and in true British fashion we all made the most of our time at West Littleton.

The last week has been an anxious time on Manor Farm as we have had a Tuberculin Test done on our cattle. On the morning of the test day the in-calf heifers and dry cows (cows on their annual two months holiday before they give birth to their calves) were brought from their field to some buildings with a cattle crush, which is a piece of equipment used to restrain the animals.

Each bovine was then given a skin test by a vet, who clipped and measured skin thickness at two sites on its neck before the two shaved patches were cleansed and injected with avian tuberculin on the upper site, and bovine tuberculin on the lower.

I then recorded the skin thicknesses for each animal on pre-prepared sheets listing the identification numbers and dates of birth. This procedure was repeated for our group of yearling heifer calves.

Fortunately the morning session was completed without any problems, not always the case when one is handling large animals, which soon realise something unusual is going on. In the afternoon the milking cows were restrained for testing as they left the milking parlour, which was familiar to them, so less stressful.

Seventy-two hours later the skin test results were read. The three groups of cattle were rounded up and restrained once again in order for the reaction to be compared on the two injection sites on each animals neck. Thankfully the results were all negative, a huge relief for us all, so we are free to trade our milk and cattle as usual for at least a year, when they will have to be tested again.

Once the skin test had been read on each of the yearling calves, they were vaccinated against leptospirosis. It has been estimated that about 75% of UK cattle herds are exposed to this zoonotic disease, which causes infertility, abortion and poor milk yields.

If leptospira are present in milk, they are killed by pasteurisation. Another task undertaken whilst the cattle were restrained was to apply a pour-on fly repellent, which will give protection from parasites, lice, mange and flies for several weeks.

On Manor Farm the rest of the week has been taken up with a variety of jobs. All the large round bales of barley straw have been collected from the fields and taken to the farm buildings for storage.

Some of the bales have been stacked outside and covered with a waterproof sheet, while others have been placed on top of the covered silage clamps in the barn.

Richard has rotovated some of the stubble fields, cleared of bales, to encourage the weeds to germinate before further cultivation is carried out.

At the end of the week, the grain in the unharvested fields of winter barley was at last dry enough to employ the combine harvester once again. It had not been working very long before it sprung an oil leak, a new part was collected and fitted, but the oil began to leak once again due, this time, to a fault in the new part. An engineer was called and following the repair the combine was at last collecting the grain without any problems.

Over the past week I have done some work at Roves Farm, which I am mentioning as the pygmy goats, diminutive cousins of standard domestic goats, have been giving birth to their kids. Three singles and one set of twins have been born so far, with one nanny goat still waiting. In my opinion these kids are adorable.