The miserable weather seems to have gone away (for the moment) so I could start on some of the pending jobs that have been put off due to the wet ground. First up was a move for the cattle into an adjacent field which, although not perfect by any means, is definitely better for them …
Continue reading ‘A sunny day means lots of moving around’ »
Living up a hill in the North Pennines at 1000ft above sea level, I had assumed that water wouldn’t be too much of a problem for us. Why should we worry about that when we are all taught in school that gravity means water will naturally flow downhill. We are another 200ft above the main …
We’re now plunging headlong into autumn and the bull has been to visit recently so I thought I’d post a quick cattle-based update with some great pictures I’ve managed to take. Before long they’ll be starting on the winter feed – hay and silage – so it’s nice to have some pictures of them while …
Nellie, our second Dexter calved successfully overnight last week and was also 2 days after my prediction based on the bulls interest last year. Any illusion of accuracy with this on my part is more by luck than judgement if I’m completely honest. The result was another bull calf (our second this year) that we …
Continue reading ‘Another Dexter bull calf – the mighty Quinn’ »
Having reached the 5th anniversary of our move from suburbia to a North Pennines smallholding, it’s clearly a good time to review the current situation and take stock of our progress so far. Not least of which is where did all those years go! The first task for me was to look back at my …
Continue reading ‘Looking back over our first 5 years as smallholders’ »
In the end my rough calculations weren’t too far off and Daisy eventually calved at about 4pm last Saturday afternoon. We had kept a close eye on her and quite by chance went down to their field just to have a check during the afternoon. When we got there we could just see the tips …
Continue reading ‘Another successful calving for the Dexters’ »
By the end of April our small herd of Dexter cattle had managed to eat all the hay that we made late last summer. Over the last couple of weeks there has been some carefully planned movements between their winter fields because we had a family wedding lined up for the main meadows. While they …
Continue reading ‘Finishing last years hay and preparing for calving’ »
Last weekend was a short notice visit from the hoof trimming man. We only have the 2 Dexter cows (plus calves) so we had to fit in around his other workload with larger, commercial herds of cattle. As usual when doing anything with our cows, my first concern was whether I would be able to …
With the Christmas and New Year period very quickly becoming a distant memory, it seemed a good time to post a quick update as a stock check for the coming year. Things have a habit of creeping up on me and getting out of hand if I’m not careful so it’s probably best if I …
There’s no escaping the fact that winter is here with the short days and cold temperatures but it’s even more obvious this evening because the snow is falling. The waterproof trousers are always at the ready just in case and I’ve already found out which pairs of wellies have holes in. The cattle are happily …