APART from one miserable wet day, the week has continued in much the same way as over the past few months, with winds from a northerly direction still dominating. Even the line on our barograph looks quite flat and uninteresting.

At the beginning of the week Richard and I were stewarding at a large horse show near Grantham, a market town in Lincolnshire. Our trip is an annual event, during which time we always go for an evening walk to see what has been planted in the surrounding fields. This year we came across fields of carrots, leeks and sugar beet, also a large area of grass for turf which looked just like a soft, green carpet. Sugar beet (with the Latin name Beta vulgaris, I remember from my college days) is used in arable rotations, commonly grown in conjunction with wheat, barley and pulses such as peas and beans. It is a valuable break crop, preventing disease build-up and the leaves left after harvest add organic matter to the soil. Sugar beet has a white, fleshy tap root and is conical in shape, weighing from 0.5kg to 1kg. This root contains a high concentration of sucrose, produced by photosynthesis in the rosette of bright green leaves, growing from the crown. The plant is grown commercially for sugar, with by-products such as pulp and molasses adding to its value. The root consists of 75 per cent water, 20 per cent sugar and five per cent pulp, the pulp mainly composed of cellulose and used as animal feed. In the UK sugar beet provides half the sugar we use, with harvest between September and December, before the frosts.

On Manor Farm field work continues as we are keen to get our new grass leys and winter cereals planted before any prolonged spells of wet weather arrive. Richard has been using his new toy the cultivator that has replaced our scrapped rotavator. It consists of tines, discs and a roller, which break up the soil, help it to dry and chop any weeds growing. He has been cultivating two stubble fields which will be planted with grass. Ian has sprayed off some short term leys, in preparation for planting these areas with winter wheat. Ryan has then spread these fields with manure. Unfortunately Ryan will be leaving us at the end of the month, to start a new job further north, nearer to his family. We wish him well.

On Stowell Farm Kevin has also been doing some cultivating in preparation for planting. He has been using a subsoiler, which is an implement with rigid tines used to loosen and break up soil, at depths below the level of traditional ploughing. This will help drainage where the soil has become compacted.

At the end of the week, on Manor Farm, the yearling heifers were brought back to the farm buildings, so that they could be restrained for freeze branding.When an animal is freeze branded liquid nitrogen or alcohol and dry ice are used to cool the branding irons. The cold number-shaped irons are applied to the hind quarters of each animal which alters the hair follicles. The outcome is that over the next few months the hair will fall out and be replaced with white hair. These large white numbers will then be easy to read when they are in a field or barn.While this job was being done the heifers were given their second vaccination against Leptospirosis and a cattle pour-on applied to control lice and repel flies for up to eight weeks. On Stowell Farm a fly control pour-on has been applied to the ewes to treat lice and ticks and also to prevent fly-strike, caused by blow-flies laying their eggs in damp fleece after which the hatched maggots obtain nutrients by eating the sheep's flesh.

Melissa has begun training Smudge, the young collie, how to follow commands given when working with sheep. She is making good progress.