Our week came to a tragic end, after Amelia, one of the oldest cows in our herd, had a difficult calving.

Ian phoned Richard at 4.30am on Friday, to tell him he needed help with Amelia. She was in a straw-bedded yard and had somehow managed to become immobile.

The first thing to be done was to get her into a comfortable position, so she could be given help with the birth.

Amelia was then examined, to check her calf was in the correct position to be born. Unfortunately, this was not the case, as it was lying over on its side.

However, Ian and Richard managed to turn the calf into the right position for delivery, before an Angus x bull calf was born alive and well.

Amelia, however, did not look as if she could stand, so a vet was called.

After a thorough examination, the vet said the cow had badly injured one of her legs prior to calving and the kindest option would be to euthanase her.

This was a sad occasion, as Amelia was a good cow that had been with us a long time.

Friday was also the day when Melissa and Kevin had to have their oldest collie, Gemma, put to sleep.

She was a faithful friend and servant, living to the ripe old age of 14 years, and will be greatly missed.

The weather has continued to be very unsettled, with a mixture of temperatures, gale force winds and 29mm – just over an inch – of rain thrown in for good measure.

The line on the barograph looks like the route taken by a roller-coaster and the fields are now starting to look really wet, with water lying in several places and ditches flowing well.

We still have the two flocks of ewes on Manor Farm, which Richard and I check every day, but it will not be long before the older ewes return to Stowell Farm, while the younger ones have one more field to graze.

Ryan has mucked out the covered yards, taking the manure to one of Manor Farm’s storage sites, ready for spreading prior to ploughing.

The Land Rover was taken to an engineer for repairs and was out of action for three days, before having its MOT. It passed, so it is now back on the farm, working hard.

During the week, Charlotte – who is in her fourth year at Bristol University, studying to be a vet – mobility scored our dairy cows.

There are a variety of scoring systems, devised to assess lameness prevalence – which is the number of animals lame at any one time in a given herd – but we used the Dairy Co system.

It is easy to use, assessing a cow’s ability to move freely, using a scoring system from zero to three. The best score is zero, indicating good mobility, with even weight bearing and rhythm. The lowest score, three, indicates uneven rhythm, short strides and an arched back. Mobility scoring is useful to identify problems and assess severity, before monitoring the effectiveness of lameness treatments.

The cows are observed as they walk on a hard, non-slip surface as part of their daily routine. When Charlotte scored our cows, she assessed them on a straight section of walkway just after they left the milking parlour, although one or two of the cows did notice they were being watched.

The scores recorded will be taken to a discussion group meeting, where a vet will talk about our results and those of a number of other herds.

On Stowell Farm, the ewes due to lamb later in the spring were scanned to check if they were pregnant and, if so, how many lambs each was carrying.

The result was good, with singles, twins and also some carrying triplets or quads.

Once scanned, the ewes were split into groups according to the number of lambs they were carrying, to ensure each group receives the correct diet.