ON returning from a week in – not so sunny! – Italy, Richard and I have been greeted by some lovely warm and sunny days.

Temperatures have suddenly soared to the dizzy heights of 24C, but it is probably wise not to get too excited.

Prior to our holiday, we were left in charge of Natasha and Annabel, as well as Melissa's menagerie, while they spent four days in Devon.

The menagerie consisted of 80 lambs on milk twice a day, ponies to feed and put in and out, three dogs, a cat, two guinea pigs, a few pet sheep and two coops of laying hens, so we really did need a week away.

Now it's back to reality and work on the farm is gaining pace. The milking cows were let out mid-week, much to their delight, and at long last the grass has begun to grow. They are still in at night for a few days to allow them to gradually get used to the change in diet, then they will be out to grass 24 hours a day.

Hopefully it will not be long before we can turn the young heifers out for the first time, as long as the weather doesn't deteriorate.

There has also been some field work to do. Students James and Nathan have been power harrowing three fields to be planted with maize.

Forage maize crops are usually planted from mid-April to early May, with the soil temperature being no less than 8C. The top 7cm of soil should be well tilled to maximise soil/moisture contact and the seeds drilled at a depth of 4-6cm.

Maize prefers south-facing fields, being very sensitive to frosts, so should not be planted if cold weather is expected. The oilseed rape is now in full flower, so even when the sun is hiding behind the clouds there is a profusion of bright yellow seen from the windows of our house.

The silage sides have been put onto our second trailer in readiness for collecting the grass to be made into silage. Now the cows are out, our other student Nathan has mucked out the loose-bedded yard area near the dairy, storing the manure in a large heap until it can be spread onto the fields.

Richard has mended a waterpipe that supplies water to a field trough and is trying to sort out the problem with a wheel bearing on one of the tractors.

On Stowell Farm, Kevin has put the last application of fertiliser onto the barley and wheat. He has also sprayed both crops with a fungicide and has had to use a herbicide on the barley as there were quite a number of unwanted weeds.

Kevin has also planted stubble turnips, which will be used to feed the wethers (castrated ram lambs), when they are weaned at 14 to 16 weeks old.

Stubble turnips are a brassica root crop that produce a useful forage alternative when fodder is short. They yield up to 45 tonnes per hectare and three acres can feed 300 sheep a complete diet for one month. Stubble turnips are also a useful break crop in an arable rotation, reducing weed and pest problems.

The daily checking of all the sheep with their lambs, now on parkland at Bowood and Corsham, takes up a great deal of time. Nearly all the flock of ewe lambs have now given birth and have been moved to fresh pasture. Melissa is happier now that most of her 80 bottle-fed lambs have been weaned, with only six lambs still on two feeds a day and nine on once a day.

Mid-week I was the guide at Roves Farm for a class of pre-school children from a Swindon school. It was a beautiful day, sunny and warm, which brought with it an abundance of wildlife. We saw a pair of Canada geese – which have successfully hatched four goslings – a heron, moorhens and a mallard on the lake. Yellow brimstone and orange-tip butterflies were also on the wing, as were buzzards and a kestrel. The pre-school children were really excited to meet many farm animals and learn more about them.

DENISE PLUMMER