THE heatwave has continued over the past week with temperatures on many days reaching just below or above 30C.

The sun has shone down relentlessly most of the time, but the occasional breeze and cloud cover has been welcome.

Our pasture is nearly all brown, but somehow the cattle seem happy and can be seen nibbling at something. We are having to provide them with additional food, which will be reducing the amount of conserved fodder with, at the moment, very little prospect of harvesting a late crop of grass, but things can change.

The lack of food has forced some farmers to sell some of their animals, but as you can well imagine an over-supplied market leads to poor prices. We were going to sell our dairy herd, but failing our annual and subsequent 60 day TB test means that we unable to trade normally as we are currently on a TB restriction awaiting two clear 60-day tests before the restriction can be lifted.

We have more cattle on Manor Farm than usual, as we kept all our Aberdeen Angus x calves, so our foodstocks are being depleted faster than normal.

Unfortunately, selling the Angus calves at the present time would mean putting them through a restricted market, not the best way to get a good price, especially with prices being depressed.

Harvesting our crops of winter barley and wheat, here on Manor Farm, is now complete. The weather may have caused a lower yield and quality than would be expected, but all things considered, not as poor as expected.

In fact, only one load of grain was below the standard bushel weight and the moisture was consistently below the maximum allowed, so no deductions were made for drying.

Another perk this year was that harvest was completed without interruption and winter wheat harvest almost a month earlier than usual. We have sold all our grain and it has been delivered to a local store from where it will be collected.

Kevin has also managed to gather the grain from 85 acres of winter wheat, about a third of his crop. To do this he was helped by Richard and his daughter Natasha.

Following the combine Kevin managed to bale 14 acres of straw, with the rest sold ready to bale. We have also had all our straw baled by a contractor into large round or square bales. There are still some round bales to collect from the fields, but these will not soak up water if it rains. Square bales, however, need to be collected, stacked and covered to keep them dry.

Richard, Kevin, Ian and student Harry were not able to cover the whole stack as the wind was far was too strong. Hopefully it will not rain before it can be covered properly.

On Stowell Farm the ewes have been given their annual MOT. The ewes were gathered, penned and put through a race from where they were examined it turn. Their feet, teeth and udders were checked and any not suitable to put in lamb in the coming season were held in another pen.

From here they were taken back to the farm and sold as culls.

As I have already mentioned, livestock prices are low at the moment and cull ewes are no exception with Kevin's culls fetching well below the usual price. The remaining ewes were all treated with an insecticide designed to kill and repel any flies and other insects which may cause them a problem.

This treatment should prevent fly strike, which is when flies lay their eggs in damp wool or soft hoof tissue, after which the hatching maggots will burrow into the sheep's flesh.

When keeping livestock farmers have to be extremely vigilant checking animals at least once a day and more times if it is thought necessary, such as when animals are giving birth.

All the ewe lambs and wethers (young castrated male lambs) have also been wormed and treated with a fly repellent.