WEATHER wise it has been a damp, miserable week, which ended on a rather stormy note, but on Manor Farm there is always plenty to do.

Richard has done some more hedge trimming, whilst my main daily job has been to check the two groups of sheep currently in fields where the grass has recently grown and needs grazing.

Sheep are really good grazing animals to have on pasture at this time of year, as they do not weigh as much as a cow and have small feet, so do not damage the now rather wet ground.

On one occasion whilst checking them this week, I noticed the electric fence surrounding one of the fields was broken. Fortunately none of the sheep had escaped and it was soon repaired. There are two rams with the ewes, one with each group, both rams are nearly three years old. One came from Scotland, the other was born on Stowell Farm, from a ewe artificially inseminated.

In their first season these selected rams sired lambs with good conformation and excellent weight gain.The ewes with these rams are from the 'White family', (so called in relation to their white ear tags).

This is the best family on the farm, so the lambs produced next spring should show the quality traits passed on from the genes of their parents.

During the week Kevin and Richard dis-budded (removed the tiny horn buds) from 10 more of our recently born dairy heifer calves, leaving three to do, which were not quite ready. They then moved to Stowell Farm to dis-bud all Kevin's dairy bull calves, born here on Manor Farm. These calves will be reared for beef. Harry, who farms nearby, is buying our Aberdeen Angus cross calves and will also rear these for beef.

David, our nutritionist, called later in the week to help produce a milk forecast for the next 12 months. This is required by the buyer of our milk, and shows the quantity of milk we expect to produce each month.

These quantities are difficult to predict, being affected by calving pattern (the cows are not yet in calf!), weather, forage quality and many other factors. The monthly figures have to be updated every three months and we would be penalised if our production fell or rose more than 10 per cent from our monthly forecast. David also checked the ration our milking cows are receiving, making any necessary adjustments.

At the end of the week Richard and I attended a Grasslands in Profile event at The Sustainable Research Platform, North Wyke Farm, Okehampton, which is part of Rothamsted Research.

The event focused on bringing together new approaches to grassland management focusing on soils and sustainable farming.

The research undertaken on the farm simultaneously measures productivity, quality, health and emissions in grazed production systems. The farm is split into three separate 22 hectare 'farmlets' each examining a different grazing system for cattle and sheep. Each farmlet comprises five fields or 'catchments', each bounded by trenches lined with a damp- proof membrane.

The flow rate of water running off each field is measured every 15 minutes and samples tested for sediment and nutrients. There are also in-field stations monitoring greenhouse gas emissions, eg carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane.

Online weather stations and soil probes measure soil moisture and temperature. Wyke Farm has global links to research platforms around the world including North and South America, China, Africa, New Zealand and Australia. The challenge is how to use the nine billion points of data produced in a year, which is of particular interest to organisations such LEAF (Linking Environment and Farming), seed and feed merchants and farmers, all represented at the event.