Julian Ellis is looking forward to injecting cows with long-acting wormer

Springs like this don’t seem to come along very often. Not once since the cows went out have we found them bunched up under the hedge. All the stock are now turned out and this year, once again, we are using a long acting wormer, which is injected behind the ear.

Last year was the first time we used it and some choice words were spoken while trying to administer the drug – the senior partner even stating that we wouldn’t be doing this again. But the drug worked well, was cost effective and, apparently, it’s less detrimental to the bugs and worms in the soil.

The fine weather meant we made good progress with the spring drilling and now with our own drilling completed and only a small amount of contract drilling to do we have had time to light the BBQ . We finished cutting cabbage on the 13 April with the last fields yielding well which made up for the frost damage earlier in the season. Altogether we have experienced a reasonable season and we shall be looking to grow at least the same amount again.

The foreign cabbage cutters worked well and even came in handy to pick up stones from the barley ground – maybe the beer that we gave them will encourage them to come again next year. Somebody that doesn’t seem to need any encouraging to come back is our milker who has now recovered from a knee operation, fortunately he didn’t take me too seriously when I hinted we would have a new parlour by the time he returned.