OVER the last week we have seen the sun a little more than of late, although most of the time conditions were rather cloudy, with the air pressure remaining fairly constant and widely fluctuating temperatures. At last the ground is beginning to dry out, following the prolonged wet, windy, dismal weather we have experienced during the winter, but the forecast is not good.

I began the week by taking a long walk around the farm in bright sunshine accompanied by a chilly breeze. The hedgerows were alive with small birds and I spotted many robins, all of which seem to have abandoned our garden, being able to find an abundance of food in the wider countryside. Over a field of autumn planted winter wheat some skylarks were hovering, at the same time singing their recognisable clear warbling song.

During the week I have been one of the guides at Roves Farm, Swindon for classes of primary school children from two schools, St John the Evangelist Primary School, Carterton and Ivy Lane Primary School, Chippenham.

The children really enjoyed being able to get close to the cattle, sheep, pigs and poultry. However, it was the recently born pygmy goats that stole the day, making the most of the cuddles they were receiving from the children.

The flock of Poll Dorset ewes have at last finished lambing and the lambs were gathered together in groups playing in the sunshine that was streaming into the barn, much to the amusement of the children who gathered around the pen to have a closer look.

The children are always curious about the numbers written on the ewes and lambs. They enable the farmer to easily identify which lamb(s) belong to each ewe, which is marked with the same number, also number 1 will be the oldest lamb, so the first in the flock to be born.

All the cattle on Manor Farm seem to be well at the moment and a routine veterinary visit also revealed that once again most of the cows selected for pregnancy diagnosis were found to be in-calf, which is good news. The rest of the work with the cattle involves feeding, mucking out, bedding up, milking twice a day and numerous checks on the dry cows to see if any are about to give birth, also to make sure they are showing no signs of illness, especially udder infection (mastitis).

On Chuggaton Farm in North Devon, Adele and Steve recently had a cow give birth to a mummified calf, which is a rare occurrence. A mummified calf is one that has remained in the uterus for longer than the normal gestation period, which is nine months for a cow.

This particular cow was put in-calf using artificial insemination and was due to calve in September 2015. Steve and Adele assumed that as she did not give birth then she came back into season when their bull was turned out with the milking herd later on.

Their are many causative factors in the formation of a mummified calf with the process usually beginning between the third and eighth month of pregnancy. Once the calf dies the fluids are reabsorbed and the foetus often becomes leathery in appearance. The calf on this occasion was described as looking a bit like a pig, with short legs, a deformed jaw and no eyes. It was at birth beginning to rot, so unfortunately the cow is being treated for a uterine infection.

On Stowell Farm, two shearers have been removing the wool from the back ends of all the ewes due to give birth from the end of the month. This process is known as 'crutching'. Nick Jasper and Matt Smith have been shearing sheep for the last 10 years. Nick was born in Cornwall and has 1,400 sheep of his own. Matt was born in New Zealand, but now lives in Cornwall. On July 28 he is going to try and set a new world record, by shearing more than 721 sheep in nine hours.