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 pen them all safely in preparation for the visit. I’ve definitely learned that if you don’t get them all into a pen at the first attempt then the job immediately becomes considerably harder. It’s even harder if they sense that someone new has arrived because that makes them even more cautious!
Luckily we have fairly well-behaved cows when it comes to moving them around and they happily followed me between fields and straight into the pen before the hoof man arrived. Although I should confess that this wasn’t so much my handling skills as the fact that their breakfast was waiting for them in the pen and they were hungry.
Safely penned without any problems
Our Dexters were certainly overdue for this work because we kept putting off the job for the past few months. Originally they were too close to calving but then the calves arrived and we didn’t want to add any stress. After that the bull was visiting during the tail end of summer last year and before you know it we reached December and the hoof man was busy anyway.
Putting up with the work
I think it’s safe to say the cows just about tolerated the inconvenience and discomfort with good grace. There were a couple of times where each of them decided to thrash about a bit but that’s when decent cattle handling equipment comes into its own and they soon calmed down again.
The actual hoof trimming only took about 30 minutes, it probably took longer getting setup in the first place and then packing up again afterwards. Luckily the cows soon got over the indignity of the whole episode and they seem to have forgiven me now.
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 have this summary to look back on before that happens.
Cattle
As it’s a quiet time for the barn conversion holiday let at the moment, I took the opportunity to put the cows out in the front fields last weekend if only for a short time.
This helps to rest the back fields which are their normal winter home from time to time. Plus they love the change of scenery and the open space.
Lying on your lunch in the sunshine
They can’t stay there too long though because we need to keep them away from guests cars. Apparently some people don’t like having their car windows and tyres licked clean by a cow.
Pigs
With farrowing getting ever closer, last weekend was also the best time to bring the pigs into the shed closer to the house. It will be Esther who farrows first this time but we bring them both in together as a way to ease the change of surroundings.
As always they happily followed me across the fields without any problems and after a night together in the shed, it was no bother to move Sissy back out again to a new pen in the woods.
Adjusting to the new surroundings
Chickens
It’s been a very slow start for the newest egg layers that we bought back in October last year but over Christmas one of them finally started laying. On a good day we can now get up to 3 eggs a day and it won’t be long before the others join in as well.
When they all get started I’ll have to work on my quiche recipe but there will always be some to leave for arriving guests in the holiday let. Of course I don’t really mind it when the inevitable egg glut happens because that means that spring is get closer too!
A real mixture of chickens
The white chickens are the last remnants of the original flock that we inherited when we bought this place back in 2013. As far as I can tell these must be the last 3 from the eggs that were hatched during our first summer here and they’re given special dispensation from egg laying – I hope they’re enjoying their retirement.
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 working their way through the hay we made back in September. At the same time we’re adjusting after sending our first steer off for beef.
By reducing the numbers in our Dexter herd ahead of any really bad weather, we’re hoping that the fields will cope slightly better this year.
It’s unusually quiet down with the pigs now that it’s just the 2 sows left and they’re enjoying a change of scene while we rest their usual pens over the winter.
After sending off the last 3 meat pigs, the 2 sows seem to have become friends again and now share the same ark most nights. The straw is regularly monitored though because as it gets colder they’re bound to need a top up from time to time.
The first sow (Esther) is already in-pig and due to farrow in mid-January while the second AI attempt with Sissy is currently underway – the first one was slightly mistimed I think. Before we know it there will be some more piglets so we’ll need to get everything prepared over the Christmas / New Year period to make sure we’re ready in time.
Meat sales
Our first efforts with selling the Dexter beef have gone really well. The best approach all round seems to be to sell it primarily as beef boxes but individual cuts are also an option once the initial rush dies down.
The same goes for the pork boxes which have sold very well again this year. There were concerns originally that we had too many meat pigs this year but that hasn’t been much of a problem in the end.
It’s been a tougher time than I’d expected but our first Dexter steer went off to slaughter at the start of November. The difference with keeping cattle is that they are around for much longer than with our pigs and as a result there is more time to get attached to them.
Despite this we knew what had to be done and a plan eventually came together. The first one had to go off this year which should help to reduce the damage to the fields over the coming winter with one less set of hooves out there. Our second Dexter steer will be kept through until late spring or early summer next year which helps to prevent overloading our freezers with too much meat at once.
The Dexter breed is a native breed which is quite happy with the British climate so ours live fairly naturally and are not housed over the winter. It’s reassuring to know that they have not had (or needed) any special feed or antibiotics during their lives – just grass or hay plus our North Pennines spring water of course.
We have high hopes for the results as we have been told by many people that this will be “the best beef we’ve ever tasted”. This will have quite a lot to live up to though because our pork has got some excellent feedback this year but I’m expecting the beef to be just as good if not better.
The beef will be back by the end of November and, as with our Tamworth pork, the plan is to sell beef selection boxes in 2 different sizes.
It seems a long time ago now but it was only just over a week ago (Sunday 27 August) when our hay field was cut. A little late in the year compared to others perhaps but we got lucky with a spell of good weather and in the end the timing suited us perfectly.
In past years this field has been made into large round bales which were then taken away because we can’t use them without the heavy machinery to handle them. This year we asked a neighbour to cut and bale the field into small bales for us so that we can feed the Dexters on our own hay this winter.
We have been managing winter feeding for the cows by getting large bales one at a time from a neighbour and storing them in the barn. We could take out as much as the cows needed each day and they worked their way through each large bale over the course of 10-12 days.
This particular field had been deliberately left empty since early June and had grown well over the past few months. We watched the proceedings with much more interest this year because the results really mattered this time around.
Freshly cut field
After a week of watching the cut grass dry out and keeping a wary eye on the ever-changing weather forecast, it was quite a sight when the baler arrived last Saturday (2 Sept). Once the small baler got going the bales just kept on appearing and with our limited equipment it wasn’t possible to keep up.
Luckily the weather was excellent so it was just a question of getting the job done no matter how long it took. In the end this was quite some time and it was lucky that the moon was bright that weekend because bales were still being shifted after 9pm on the Saturday night!
Bringing in the bales
By the following afternoon – and with the life saving help of some neighbours and his tractor – the last bales were safely stored. In fact just about every outbuilding now has some hay in it which smells wonderful but limits the options if we need to store anything else!
They might be called small bales but that’s just a relative term. After a weekend of shifting nearly 400 bales I was quite glad to get back to work at the day job for a rest!
Starting to fill up the main barn
After all the work it’s a strange sight now but I know that in no time at all the grass will be growing again and it will be back to a normal green field
It’s been a very busy time over the last few months and the weeks just fly by but I’ve eventually realised that some events had not been fully covered by a blog update. Many events do get mentioned briefly through the Facebook or Twitter accounts but that doesn’t include much detail so it seems right that I post more information here.
Cattle
This year we got exactly what we’d hoped for with the calving. A red heifer calf (Primrose) from Nellie on 30 May followed a few weeks later by a “black” bull calf (Frank) from Daisy on 12 June.
My initial belief that Frank was black is proving to be a little wrong and he is actually a lovely shade of brown which I assume should officially be called “dun”.
Frank (left) and Primrose (right)
We are now looking forward to the arrival of the pedigree Dexter bull that we’re borrowing this year. We’ve heard good things about him and saw him while he was at a friends farm recently so we’ll keep our fingers crossed for another good result when calving time comes around next May or June.
Pigs
We have 4 pigs from the first litter (from Sissy) and they are developing nicely. As we didn’t raise any pigs for meat last year, it’s been a good reminder this year for monitoring their growth and planning for the inevitable departure. We don’t take this any more lightly now that we’ve had pigs for 4 years, it’s just as important to us now that they have a good life while they’re with us and a stress-free final trip to the abattoir.
The first 2 pigs from the older litter will be heading off to the butchers by early August and when I calculated their weight at 6 months old they were roughly 60kg which is fairly respectable. At feeding time tonight I managed another quick measurement for weight calculations and they are almost up to 74kg now.
Sissy and gang
Amazingly this is exactly what I’d been hoping for as they will be going off in 2 weeks time and should be about 80kg at that time. This is ideal for a basic “porker” like the first ones going off where we just want pork joints, sausages etc. With some careful monitoring, the other 2 pigs from this litter will go off about 3-4 weeks later when they’ll hopefully be 90kg or just over which is a better weight for a “baconer”.
The first batch of pork will be available for sale from 20 Aug and this year we also have 3 pigs from the second litter (from Esther) who are roughly 2 months younger. This will help to give us a regular supply of pork for sale from summer through to autumn or later this year.
Despite some poor results in other areas with growing produce this year, the garlic and onions that were planted last Autumn have now been harvested. The fairly respectable haul is currently drying in an outhouse while I think about the best way (and place) to store them. This is the second time that I’ve grown garlic and onions this way and I’m really pleased with the results. I think they’re definitely on the list for next year so I’ll need to reserve a spot to plant some more this autumn.
Garlic and onion crop
After a complete failure (yet again) with the dwarf beans, I’ve almost managed to fill the space with my excess leeks and some chard. I’m also hoping to get some more carrots sown in there very soon as well because we can always use more carrots and they are easy to grow – although never very straight!
With just a single row of parsnips this year, I think that Christmas dinner might be sorted out but not many parsnips left after that. I’ve never had much luck with germinating the seeds and I often think I won’t bother with them next time… However, the taste of a roasted parsnip which came fresh from the garden is something really special so I expect I’ll persevere with them.
Just space for one more row of something
Overall it’s been a pretty good growing season this year with no prolonged excessively dry (or wet) spells. There were some problems with rabbits sneaking in and nibbling my lettuces but adding some chicken wire to the boundary fence has fixed that problem.
The newly installed scarecrows from Waltons are now dealing with any potential problems with the extensive bird life in the garden. If I’m honest I really don’t mind sharing a little of it with them but I’m not sure they’ll leave any behind if I don’t do something!
Despite my recent amateur efforts at calculating a calving date, Nellie decided to hold on for just a few days more – probably just so she could laugh at me checking on her every few hours.
As luck would have it, she held on until I had just left for a business trip so I didn’t witness the actual event but luckily someone else was on hand to take a few photographs for me.
I wouldn’t expect to be directly involved in their calving anyway because both cows have calved before plus Dexters generally have very few problems when calving.
Less than an hour old
Last time around both cows calved during the winter months (in December 2015 and February 2016) because we bought them in-calf and the previous owners had some delays with the bull arriving at their place.
During summer 2016 we were lucky that some friends who also keep Dexters had already organised a bull for their herd which made it easy to arrange for him to visit our 2 cows at a suitable point.
We now have a red calf called either Percy or more likely Primrose based on my initial quick inspections while trying not to upset his/her mother. A third inspection is scheduled for later today and at the same time I may also deal with the ear tagging before the calf gets any more agile on its feet and therefore harder to catch!
Just over 2 days old
And here is a quick snap of the complete happy family with mother (Nellie) plus previous calf (Oscar) who is 18 months old and the new-born:
Surprisingly, today marks the 4th anniversary of the move to our smallholding in the North Pennines. This is hard to believe partly because it’s just 4 years since we left the suburban semi-detached house but also because it feels longer than 4 years given that so much has happened in that time.
From having 3 chickens in our suburban back garden to a 15 acre smallholding with an assortment of chickens, some rare breed Tamworth pigs (plus piglets) and some pedigree Dexter cows (plus calves). It’s been an amazing journey so far even just from a livestock perspective never mind the converted barn for holiday lets.
The ups and downs along the way have been both educational and humbling in equal measure but the overwhelming feeling is that we have been extremely lucky and we should continue trying to make the most of the opportunity.
We have been helped along the way by far too many people to mention but that doesn’t mean we don’t appreciate all the help and advice provided though. We still have a lot to learn though and without the knowledge and experience of others we definitely wouldn’t have made it this far.
Over time it’s becoming clear that there will never be a point when we can just sit back and relax. Mostly because there’s always a job that needs to be done or another mad idea to plan and pursue. I wouldn’t have it any other way!
To celebrate this significant milestone, here are a few of my favourite pictures from the past 4 years
After all the excitement with litters of pigs over the last few months, it’s now time to think about the cattle and get ready for calving again. The last time they calved we missed the actual event but were on hand within an hour or two to check on both mother and new-born calf.
Our calculations for calving dates this year are based entirely on the dates for the bulls visit last year and their level of interest in him at different times during his stay. Apparently the usual gestation period for cattle of 283 days can be out by as much as 7 days (earlier or later) but I’ve calculated the dates as being 26 May for Nellie and 7 June for Daisy.
Spotting the signs
A good indicator that calving is getting closer is how the cows body changes in preparation for the event. The first visible signs were a noticeable increase in udder size on Nellie who is due first when compared with Daisy who should be almost 2 weeks later.
Nellie (top) and Daisy (bottom)
We could have had a vet in to check/scan them in the early stages just to confirm that they were in-calf but we decided that made no difference to our plans. If they both had calves that would be great but with just 2 cows this is still a bit of an experiment for us. It won’t be the end of the world if it turns out one of them wasn’t in-calf but I hope that isn’t the case.
Finding some grass
Our top concern for the moment is having somewhere with enough grass for them to eat while still being secluded enough to offer a little privacy for calving. For the last few weeks all 4 Dexters have been out in the front fields to give the back fields a chance to recover a little from the rough treatment over winter.
A stay in the front fields is always a bit of an adventure for them and they have enjoyed exploring the furthest corners over the last few weeks. As the picture below shows, even the youngest calf – Elvis – enjoyed himself despite still being a little too short to see over the walls in places. Luckily these old dry stone walls have “smoot holes” which are designed to allow sheep to pass through.
A special calf viewing hole
A lesser concern for me is whether to separate the current calves – Oscar and Elvis – from the herd before the new calves appear. There is a slight worry that their occasionally more boisterous behaviour could be a problem when the new-born calves appear or even that the 2 cows might be a little over-protective.
I think we’ll just have to wait and see how that goes but I’m certainly going to have a plan in mind if it becomes necessary.
It always feels odd to refer to our cattle as a “herd” particularly as we only have 2 cows with their 2 calves from last winter. However that is the proper collective noun and, according to the official letter, we were to arrange for a new herd TB check which had to be completed before the end of 2016.
As might be obvious from the date of this post, that deadline was not met although not without trying. The main problem was that the cattle took an immediate dislike of the vet and one in particular – Nellie – was so unhappy about the idea that she jumped the fencing despite the barbed wire catching her leg. Luckily no permanent damage was done to the cow … and the fence survived the incident too.
Obviously improvements were needed so we got a few more cattle hurdles (10ft wide by 5ft high) which meant we could make a larger secure area for penning them in. With the cattle crush fitted at one end of this pen, the hurdles could be removed to reduce the space available without any risk of escape attempts.
Penned in and ready for testing
After a few more practice attempts with the new setup, I was happy that we could securely pen them in before the vet arrived. Of course, I had learnt the first time that they will happily stroll through the cattle crush on request when I’m the only one there but I still wasn’t sure what to expect when the vet was present too.
On the day of the vet’s first visit everything went relatively smoothly with the cattle being very helpful about getting in the pen ahead of the vets arrival. They weren’t so happy about being in the crush but I’m not sure I’d like that part either.
The cattle crush doesn’t hurt them at all and it greatly reduces the chance of injury for them (and the vet) during the procedure. In the end, the whole process on the first visit took no more than 30 minutes for all four of them with most of that time spent encouraging the cattle through the crush.
Three days later is the key part with the follow-up visit when the vet checks for any reactions to the injections from the first day and I’m sure the cattle were aware of the significance. They did eventually agree to go into the pen for me but it took a little longer than I would have liked which added to the tension.
Ready for the follow up check
Thankfully, we are in a very low TB risk area within the UK and there wasn’t much chance that one of ours would be a reactor when tested. However, there is always an element of doubt that is only dispelled once the all clear is received so we were very relieved to get the good news.
As a result of the lower risk around here, we have a 4 yearly testing programme which means I can relax now before I have to do it all again in about 2020
