IT has been a rather unsettled week, during which time about three-quarters of an inch of rain has fallen. It has also felt cooler and often there has been quite a strong wind. I have been instructing at one of the Beaufort Hunt Pony Club's summer events, only becoming thoroughly soaked in the middle of a large field on two occasions.

Leading up to the Pony Club event I did some farm sitting at Chuggaton Farm for my daughter Adele and her family, who live near Barnstaple in north Devon. It is never easy for them to get a break from the routine jobs that need to be done on a dairy farm but Jane, their part- time milker, said she was happy to do some extra days. Grandson Dominic stayed behind to help me as Richard was unable to come with me due to commitments here on Manor Farm.

On the first morning of my stay we awoke to a rather damp day, but Dominic and I were able to clean the collecting yard following milking and check the four outlying fields of cattle which had to be checked every day without getting wet.

However, once the rain began to fall, it continued to do so for most of the day. What a great feeling checking the dry cows, in-calf heifers and heifer calves early every morning with stunning views across the Devonshire countryside. Later, when the sun shone, there was always a variety of butterflies visiting an array of colourful flowers along the steep banks which line many of the Devon lanes.

There were Large White, Peacock, Red Admiral and Gatekeeper butterflies, just to name a few, and of all the flowers blooming at the moment my favourite has to be toadflax with its bright orange and yellow flowers.

Checking the cows was trouble-free until the day before I was due to return home. It was when Dominic and I arrived at the last field containing the Aberdeen Angus bull and some dry cows, due to give birth in a few weeks, that we realised there was a problem.

The cows and bull were all standing near the gate, or so we thought, but no matter how many times we counted them, we could only get to 19 instead of 20. It was a hilly field so Dominic walked down the slope and there was the missing cow standing alone. On getting closer he could see she was next to a dead calf, but on checking the records we found it had been born a month early. After phoning a neighbouring farmer for some help we managed to get her safely back to the farm. Fortunately that was the only problem that occurred before I returned home the next day.

Here on Manor Farm, Harry has almost finished harvesting his two fields of winter oilseed rape. So far this task was has not been trouble free, being interrupted by a problem with his combine harvester and the unsettled weather. Oilseed rape is a brassica belonging to the mustard and cabbage family, cultivated for its oil-rich seed. During processing it produces rapeseed meal as a by-product, which is used as a high-protein animal feed. Oilseed rape has a bright yellow flower which yields large quantities of nectar. Honey bees collect the nectar to make light-coloured peppery honey, usually blended for table use.

We are continuing to dry cows off for their summer holiday and increased the forage fed in their supplementary ration as at this time of year the nutritional value of grazed grass is beginning to fall.

On the arable side Nathan has been cultivating some of the winter barley stubble fields to help rid them of weeds and encourage more volunteer cereals (seeds shed at harvest) to germinate. The fields will then be cultivated once more. James has been ploughing up a two-year grass ley before a seed bed can be prepared for the planting of a crop of winter wheat in September.