On this wild and windy day, we write for the last time this year. Will the winds blow in a calmer, more peaceful world for next year – we can only hope. 

Here, the puddles are still aplenty, despite little rain these last seven days, and the realisation that we will need to ‘flush’ through the land drains in field 8 – again – is tiresome, but necessary. The weight of the cars along the driveway, the roots of the Horse Chestnuts, it all combines to make the ancient land drains need a little help once in a while, and well, don’t we all! 

As some of you may remember, our annual visit with our vet Anne is always a very important anchor in our farming year. We’ll let Brendan’s words pick up the tale…: 

“An important event in our farm calendar is the annual vet review. Anne, our vet, joined us for a late afternoon cup of tea and discussion round the kitchen table, which was something Adrian always relished. We shall try and do him justice! The first thing to note is that our calving interval (time between calves for each cow) averaged about 300 days, which is pretty good. The two big problems were TB, which we are still under restrictions for, and New Forest Eye, which we treated 53 individual cases of! To put that into perspective, we only administered medicine for two other incidents in the cows this year – some antibiotics and painkillers following a difficult calving, and a treatment for coccidiosis in a poorly calf. Slightly slow growth rates were also discussed, as well as low mineral counts. We need to determine whether the eye problems are caused by low immune response from mineral deficiencies, as seems likely, or something else altogether. 

Tackling the mineral deficiency is another complex matter – we have had our pastures sampled and they seem to contain the necessary nutrients, albeit with some suppressants such as molybdemum. We have not considered a worm problem in the cattle for a long time, and it is possible that a heavy worm burden is causing both slow growth rates and stealing essential minerals from the cows which is in turn causing the eye problems, or whether the low mineral count has caused the cattle to be more vulnerable to worms. Chicken or egg!! In the new year we will begin a programme of measuring growth rates in all animals on the farm, as well as using mineral boluses (something we have avoided as they are very difficult to administer) and hopefully this will give us some useful data. We have also done a selection of blood and feacal samples this week to establish a herd baseline.” 

We welcomed another boy calf this week, making all in all, 25 calves this year. Something we are very proud of and reminds us just how well our old Bull had done.  

A most marvellous day was had in search of a new bull. Brendan takes up the reigns: 

“On a grey and rainy Friday morning Anne, Chris, Brendan, Alice and Thistle loaded themselves into the Land Rover for a trip to Herefordshire, to look for a new bull. Although we had to rely on Google maps to get us there, while turning up the very beautiful drive, past magnificent brick barn, Chris realised that he had in fact been to this farm before, many years ago when he attended a meeting of the Traditional Hereford Society with Adrian. He remembered the hospitality had been excellent, even if the weather had been cold. We were very pleased to be welcomed into the house which made up one side of the courtyard and was coated in wisteria which would have been quite a sight earlier in the year. Sure enough, the hospitality was just as good as remembered, and we were soon round a blazing log fire, coffee in hand and home-made chocolate cake filling the 11sies gap – all the better as it was Chris’ birthday! After a brief discussion about the history of the herd, we went out with the farmer to look at the bull who is a fine young lad. On the plus side he is a beautiful colour & conformation and has the much desired ‘eye patches’ (brown patches around the eyes, which help discourage flies and prevent sun damage) but we have not reached a decision yet as he is a young man at 20 months, and there are risks to consider with the current TB problem. All in all, it was a very pleasant outing with good company, only improved by an impressive display of street dancing viewed while stuck in traffic through Hereford!” 

You’ll be pleased we know, to learn that the search has now been successful; we have now managed to find a Bull. His pedigree name is “Model 3 Sopoaga”. A need for a shorter name has led to suggestions of ‘Tesla’, ‘Aga’, or the late runner, “Jim Bowen”… Let us know your suggestions! 

As for the sheep, the two flocks and their rams have been combined. 

Looking through the year with Anne: 

“The sheep report is much shorter, as we had a good lambing with no cases of watery mouth. Following a thorough check over we have removed about 20% of the breeding ewes due to mastitis, lameness or lack of teeth. This means our flock is now looking very bonny, if small! We will be taking metabolic profiles of the sheep in the new year, to establish the best diet to feed them in the run up to lambing, as well as regularly weighing and condition scoring. With Alice and Brendan suppling extra manpower there is an air of excitement for the new year on the farm about restarting a proper breeding programme – we will keep you updated!” 

This has already been put into place with all the sheep being weighed and condition scored. The sheep were good, and we are very happy with them. Only one sheep needs some TLC and has now joined Lesley’s flock for the Rich Tea biscuit Lesley love.  

The Shetland sheep have settled in really well and are now in the north end of the Gallop. Bucket training has commenced and is hoped will be successful soon!  

Tim is now away for the Christmas week, although if the house full becomes too much, we might see him earlier! We hope he gets to enjoy some rest. Caring for the cows in the barn in winter is no picnic! We are using roughly 10 bales of silage and 7 of straw per week at the moment. If we continue at that rate, we will need to look to buy in more straw before the winter is out.  

Our ‘last man standing’ Guinea Fowl from our second batch was with us until last week. They just seem to forget they can fly when Maître Renard comes a visiting. Lesley took on the task to find us more chicks, and she and Boots fetched them from a chap in Leicestershire earlier this week. They are settled in, and we all very much enjoy visiting them and listening to their chatter.  

The tractor played its, now usual, trick and got a puncture in its front left wheel. It is always the front left… why that one alone we know not, but we are grateful it isn’t any more of them! Now fixed, with some relief as we obviously can’t care for the cattle without it.  

After mulling over the visit with the consultants, we have now extended our Highter Tier Stewardship for another five years. We are gambling that this decision is best scenario in a very unsettled and volatile political world. Where farmers and farming sits with any of those in power is hard to discern. 

We bravely took a look back through this year, and although yes, we had the lows of the eye infections, and losing the Bull, not to mention the one case of falsely suspected TB, the highs do outweigh. We have successfully brought in new breeding ewes, we had rain at all the right times for good grass growth through the summer and autumn, and it also allowed us to make good forage. Brendan and Alice have joined the team, lambing was good – all lambs sold by September, which is a new record, and the calving has been consistent through the year. For us personally, Brendan and Alice’s wedding was a wonderful high, especially within these 12 months of a family struggling to find the new way. We think the family, and the farm should feel pretty pleased with all achieved! 

We’ve tried to encapsulate the year in the attached photos. Hope they play for you! Finally, we hope you are all safe and well, and are able to enjoy a peaceful and merry Christmas and New Year. Thank you for continuing to travel alongside us on our journey these last months. To sign off, it came down to Christina Rossetti and “An Old Man’s Winter Night” by Robert Frost today. Both loved by Adrian, we plumped for the more hopeful of the two.  

A Christmas Carol by Christina Rossetti 

In the bleak mid-winter 
   Frosty wind made moan, 
Earth stood hard as iron, 
   Water like a stone; 
Snow had fallen, snow on snow, 
   Snow on snow, 
In the bleak mid-winter  
   Long ago. 
 Our God, Heaven cannot hold Him 
   Nor earth sustain; 
Heaven and earth shall flee away 
   When He comes to reign: 
In the bleak midwinter 
   A stable-place sufficed 
The Lord God Almighty 
   Jesus Christ.