A COLD and frosty start to the week saw the temperature fall to almost 0C by mid -week . This frosty weather was accompanied by some glorious sunny days before the wind arrived on the last day and some dark clouds that passed over Manor Farm deposited another 3.5 mm rain.

At the start of the week Ian became quite exited that a chance may arrive to get the tractor and cultivator onto a field which was supposed by now to be growing a crop of winter wheat. However when the decision was made mid- week to try and do some cultivating , a large chunk of the field was still too wet. Then the rain arrived, so it seems impossible that any more planting will be done until the spring. The arrival of a few sharp frosts alerted Ian to the fact that it would be a good idea to turn off the water supply to outlying water troughs, a job he has now done.

For most of the week Ian has been doing routine feeding, bedding up and checking all our cattle, now happily in their cosy winter housing. The last six animals to be brought in were four of our home bred Angus cross nine-month-old calves and two free martins (sterile female bovines from two sets of mixed twins ). As they have been inside for a few weeks Ian treated them all with a broad spectrum wormer, just to clear them of any worms that may have infected them recently.

Unfortunately Ian recently had to call a vet out to have a look at one of our older Angus cattle, which was scouring and starting to lose condition. The vet is not sure what the problem is but as the animal had a temperature so was prescribed an antibiotic. A blood sample was taken and tested, which fortunately showed no signs of bovine viral diarrhoea or Johnes disease.

Feed rations have all been worked out by our nutritionist and after the results of samples of our grass and maize silage was analysed. The two silages analysed very well, with good starch content in the maize and good levels of protein in the grass silage. This means that we will not need to feed so much bought in concentrate to balance the diet. This is a good thing as finished beef prices are exceptionally low at the moment, so keeping costs down is essential .

Ian has also spent some time during the week giving Kevin a hand to finish preparing the barns to house all the ewes before Christmas. Another batch of wethers were found to be ready for sale into the lamb market and have been collected from the farm. Ewe lambs, born in the spring, have been moved onto another field of fresh grass which will hopefully provide enough forage to maintain them without having to top up their diet with any concentrate.

The flock of ewes brought in a short time ago and scanned have been split into their lambing groups. The ones carrying triplets were marked with a blue splotch, those carrying singles a red splotch and those carrying twins without any colour. Only a few ewes were found to be barren. The results of the scan at this stage was good, but the actual result is calculated from the time the rams are put in with the ewes to the number of lambs born alive.

The ewes are split into groups according to the number of lambs they are carrying in order that each group can be fed the correct ration. The early lambing ewes have just been given their annual booster vaccination to protect them against pasteurella and a number of clostridial diseases. This is given four to six weeks prior to lambing, so that some of this immunity is passed on the their unborn lambs . This protection will last until the lambs receive their first vaccination at four weeks of age.