Herd Update

Lovely start to the year with the new addition of 6 young heifers from Forde Abbey, who are settling in well.

This brings the total number in the herd to 21, 6 of which are in calf (from Tim).  We also have the 6 calves from last year (now about 9 months old), 4 of these will be sold on, hopefully for breeding purposes, sadly 2 have Neospora so will have to be culled.  Beattie and Bonnie also have Neospora so will also be going later in the year.  This does mean by the end of the year we will be Neospora free.

This really has focused our minds on the importance of our cattle being managed under the Premium Cattle Health Scheme.   This helps us to ensure the best health for the cattle by operating a programme of testing and management to control the major endemic cattle diseases including BVD, Johne’s Disease, IBR, Leptospirosis and Neospora.  We are a closed herd and all cows which come in from elsewhere are tested before they arrive, as were the Forde Abbey crowd!

This means that Tim the bull will have 12 cows to service in the summer, so we are looking forward to increasing our number of calves in the spring of 2021.

 

Pasture Fed

In addition to grass the cows have haylage at this time of year, this was cut and baled from 3 of our fields during the summer.  It smells absolutely delicious, very sweet, almost like candy floss.  The cows absolutely love it!