Julian Ellis’ cow milking well despite cold weather

Vegetables that I planted in my garden three weeks ago are finally poking through – a sure sign of how cold the soil must be.

Despite the cool and wet weather, cows are milking well with butterfat holding up at 4.9%; fairly pleasing considering they aren’t having any silage and grass growth has been spasmodic.

Having said this, most silage fields seem to be on far enough to cut as soon as the weather settles down. Unfortunately, we had a heifer that damaged her back bulling; sadly steroids didn’t help, so she had to be culled.

Our discussion group recently visited an award winning dairy farm; as usual there is plenty to be gleaned at these visits, with this one being no exception. One of the things that stood out was an auto device that would let the cows up the track and make their way to the parlour ready for milking. Perhaps next we will see a robotic cow fetcher so that the dairy farmers’ wives can have 10 minutes longer in bed as well.

Sam’s due date is getting closer and understandably she is rather apprehensive. But with it all still being sensible enough, to remind me that I probably ought to get planning for a second-hand shed that I was about to put up, particularly as I am chairman of the parish council. Yes, a more senior role than you imagined and just to let you know I even enjoyed an evening of bingo last night.

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