At the end of May 2021 we reached the 8 year anniversary of moving from a previous suburban semi-detached life to our rural 15 acre smallholding in the North Pennines. On one level we are now so settled here that this is just another anniversary and no big deal really. However when I take the …
Continue reading ‘The 8th anniversary and another successful calving’ »
In our area, there is a 4 year regime for cattle TB testing as a result of the generally low incidence of the disease here. It’s still a theoretical possibility that they might test positive but it’s fairly unlikely. When our Dexters had their first ever bovine TB test in Dec 2016/Jan 2017, the event …
On Friday morning we awoke to find a couple of inches of snow had fallen and settled too which was a slight surprise. It wasn’t quite cold enough for it to stay though and it rained occasionally for most of the day so everything turned first to mush then fairly quickly into mud For most …
Despite working from home for the last 6 months and hardly ever leaving our holding, it seems to have been impossible to find the time for a blog update. There are always a number of other tasks that seem to be more important or an unexpected event happens which throws any plans that had been …
One of the reasons we originally decided to get pedigree Dexter cattle was because they are a native UK breed. This means they are well suited to the British climate and able to live outside all year round even here in the North Pennines. However, as they’re always outside that means they have to calve …
Now that the weekend is over I can reflect with some satisfaction on the wide range of events that took place in a relatively short space of time. Each in their own way could have had a different, more troubling, outcome but in the end all have been completed fairly successfully Esther Farrowing One event …
Last weekend was yet another first for us – the departure of 3 animals from our relatively small Dexter herd. We’ve never sold live cattle before so loading them into a trailer and watching as they’re driven away was quite an odd experience. We’ve done this so often when selling pigs as weaners so perhaps …
Now that calving has finished for 2019, our small herd of Dexter cattle has reached a total of 9 which, I’m only too well aware, is too many for the available grazing land. It’s a heart-warming sight to see them wandering around their summer grazing now but that won’t last long later in the year. …
We’ve barely got used to getting our first calf for 2019 last Tuesday but now all 3 calves have turned up. Compared to last year when the calving was spread out over a few weeks, this time around the whole business has been completed in just 4 days! We’ve got 3 lovely heifer calves with …
After spending the past weekend incorrectly trying to guess the imminent arrival of our first calf for this year, I should at least have predicted that it would happen while I’m away for work this week. Some time in the early hours of this morning it turns out that Daisy produced a lovely black calf …