Archived News

14th June 2009

As a ribbon of mist hung effortlessly above the valley floor, the sky seemed to be filled with an explosion of the dawn chorus. Owls were still calling as night faded and it seemed as though the entire bird population of Wotton was bursting into the new day.

There was almost a tangible urgency for every bird to sing at once, with such intensity that nothing or no one could spoil their moment.  This was quite awesome, and the perfect start to my day.

Last week we hosted thirty, six and seven year olds from Raey Primary School and despite a slight drizzle at the start, we had another super day and hopefully, through their ‘hands on’ experience the children learnt more about where their food comes from.

Interestingly, when Jim, the local countryside ranger joined us for our afternoon nature walk, he mentioned that gardeners can unwittingly cause greater harm to bees than farmers and It's not often mentioned, that highways and railways are regularly sprayed, popular areas with bees in town and country.  Jim has been a bee keeper for many, many years and has numerous hives all over our farm.

The level of active ingredient in the chemicals applied to agricultural crops is lower than that bought from products sold in garden centres and applied to borders and vegetable plots in gardens. 

A group of our calves have been attacked by a dog at Coomb Farm, similar to an incident in the same field about a year ago.  The group of calves had clearly been chased and were extremely shaken, one had signs of running at high speed into a fence in its attempt to escape from its attacker and another was so savagely attacked it has been moved to a barn for treatment and recuperation.

The dog attacked this calf’s head, neck and leg as it tried to pull it to the ground, just as a wolf would do. The ear tag in its left ear has been wrenched out so forcefully it has split the ear right through. The open wounds have been treated with an antiseptic spray which is blue, so that we can see which areas we have treated. This calf will be regularly checked and given any medical treatment necessary to recover over the coming weeks.

Dogs are permitted to use public rights of way throughout the UK if they are kept ‘under close control’ by their owner, this means the dog is walking to heel, on a lead, or if you know for certain that livestock are not just around the corner, a dog can walk a little more freely, but close by.  ‘Under close control’ also means that the dog will come back to the owner as soon as it’s called, it should not be way ahead and certainly should not be running around in any fields adjacent to a public right of way.

I will put signs up at the location of this attack. If using the bridleways and footpaths around Coomb Farm, do please keep an eye out for any dogs chasing livestock.