The past two weeks have been extremely busy for all of us on Manor and Chiverlins Farms.The weather has been sunny and dry until rain began to fall on the last day, which was (despite six months of almost continual rain) much needed to encourage good germination and growth of recently planted seeds. The temperature has not always felt particularly warm, unless you could avoid the chilly breeze. In fact I would go as far as saying that many T-shirt days were followed by a few days when a winter jacket was more appropriate. However the change in the weather has been wonderful, for not only brightening up these days of lockdown but enabling farmers to catch up with field work on many farms in Wiltshire and further afield.

As we all tend our animals and work the fields there is a great deal of uncertainty in the farming community. Everyone, in some way, has been affected by the recent turn of events and farming businesses are no exception. About 50% of all food is now eaten out of the home, so the closure of this market has severely disrupted supply chains. This has lowered commodity prices and some dairy farmers have had to throw milk away, as their previous outlets have ceased to operate as before. Unfortunately cows still have to be milked and the supply cannot be instantly turned off.

Our spring barley has germinated well, but there is still a long time to go until the crop is ready to harvest and who knows how much spring barley will come onto the market then? Unable to plant large acreages with winter cereals because of the wet weather, I expect spring barley will have been a favoured crop to bridge the gap. During the last two weeks Ian and Jenny have been preparing a seed bed in a 20 acre field to be planted with forage maize. Following the application of manure the field was ploughed, cultivated twice in opposite directions, power harrowed and rolled with a ring roller and even then Ian was not sure the soil was broken up enough. However, it has recently been planted by a contractor using a specialist maize drill, so hopefully the crop will germinate.

Two weeks ago our herd of Angus beef cattle were tested for TB. This was our annual test and as the animals were still in their winter housing the job was completed very easily and I am pleased to say that on this occasion we had a clear test, but this can never be taken for granted. While the cattle were being restrained for testing we took the opportunity to weigh and worm each animal, so causing them the least amount of stress.

Then the herd was turned out into an adjacent field of grass, which had been securely fenced by Ian and Jenny. It was the first time these Anguses had been in a field, so they had never encountered fences. A single strand of electric fence was erected inside the perimeter fence, to enable them to learn about that as well. The whole family spread themselves around the edge of the field to prevent the Anguses from going through the fences, as they were obviously very excited, feeling spring grass beneath their hooves. They settled down very quickly and after each animal had investigated the electric fence we felt happy that they were not going to escape.

Another job involved some repair work on our oldest tractor. One problem was a worn out shaft on the four-wheel drive mechanism. This repair was done by an engineer, but Ian thought that with Kevin's help they would be able to do the other repairs themselves. The sliding struts on the seat needed replacing, as they were so worn they had a mind of their own. Then a new exhaust manifold was needed and finally the seals on one of the wheels had perished, so oil was leaking out. Ian and Kevin soon got to work and managed to do all the repairs, so far everything seems to be fine.