AT the beginning of the last week day and night-time temperatures began to climb, with the final high reaching a sweltering 34 degrees Centigrade.

This was the highest recorded June temperature since 1976, which I can remember well, as Melissa was born that year.

However at the end of the week cloud cover returned accompanied by a much cooler wind, which was a great relief.

Many farmers have been making the most of the sustained period of good weather.

Two nearby farmers, who bought some of our unwanted grass, have used the opportunity to make it into silage.

On Roves Farm, near Swindon, grass has been cut and made into large bales of haylage which will be fed to the suckler beef herds of Sussex and Highland cattle during the winter.

On Stowell Farm, Kevin has ensiled some grass which will be used to feed the sheep once they come into the barns for lambing next year. We have made 360 small bales of hay. Nathan did the mowing, James the tedding (the turning over and spreading of grass for drying), once the grass had dried it was gathered into rows ready for baling by Richard using our old baler. Fortunately our 16 year old baler, baled the 360 small bales without a problem.

I have just spoken to Adele, our daughter who farms on Chuggaton Farm in North Devon, who told me they have made some very good small bales of haylage.

Haylage is grass which is almost dry, so has to be wrapped in a plastic film to prevent it from spoiling.

On Stowell Farm, apart from making silage, sheep work has taken up most of the week. A small flock of ewes, all the rams and the shearlings – lambs born spring 2016, due to give birth to their first lambs spring 2018 – have been shorn.

The collies have been very busy helping to gather the sheep for shearing, not helped by the very hot weather.

The remaining ewes with their lambs lambs were rounded up so that the lambs could be weaned, allowing the ewes time to settle down before they are sheared next week.

At the moment, Ian is unable to do the relief milking on Ruth's days off. Natalie has been helping her father some weekends so that she could familiarise herself with the milking process, taking over his role for the first time at the beginning of the week. Apart from one phonecall to Richard she managed to successfully complete her first milking session alone.

Near the end of the week we noticed one of the young heifers had become lame.

The cause was found to be foul -of -the- foot. Foul-of- the -foot occurs when the skin between the claws is damaged giving access to a bacteria which infects the soft tissue. This gives a painful swelling between the claws radiating up into the pastern and fetlock.

The only way to treat this condition is with the use of an appropriate antibiotic. Following the discovery we had to take all the heifers back to the farm buildings so that the one needing treatment could be separated from the rest.

When we originally spotted her we thought we might be able to load her into the cattle trailer, as foul- of the - foot also makes the animal feel rather unwell,but on trying this method the lame heifer decided this was definitely NOT going happen.

Having safely driven the herd to the farm we put the animal needing treatment into a pen with two friends to keep her company. As the heifers were due to move to fresh pasture a few days later it was decided that it would be a good idea to take them straight there from the farm.

Fortunately, from this point moving them became easier and they have now happily settled into their new surroundings.