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Archived News
9th February 2010
Today was tinged with sadness as it was the funeral of Vi Bullen, who farmed at Swanworth Farm, Mickleham. I first met Vi in 1985 when I worked at Box Hill. Vi’s husband Alf, grazed sheep on Box Hill for the National Trust, and whilst I worked there I used to keep an eye on Alf’s sheep and can remember erecting what seemed like miles of Flexi – netting and getting numerous electric shocks when checking the fence!
I took this photo at the Box Hill Country Fair in 1985, Alf took along a few sheep so that he could demonstrate shearing and Vi demonstrated her skills at spinning wool.
Five cows were due to calve about January time, however we have waited a little longer for ‘Browny’ to give birth as she is always weeks behind the others! On Friday Browny gave birth to a beautiful heifer calf, which looks tiny compared to those which were born on 30th December. On our way back from the funeral, Amanda asked whether I had a name ready for the heifer calf which we needed to tag this afternoon; my immediate response was ‘Vi’.
So this afternoon we brought the cows with their calves at foot, into the yard at Raikes Farm and tagged the bonny little calf.
I tagged the calf as Amanda held her steady.
The cattle must have two tags which provide a plethora of information. However it is possible to use one side of one tag to add a name and this is what we do for the suckler herd calves.
A Defra approved eartag must be placed in each ear (double tagging). Both the tags have the same unique number by which the animals will be identified throughout its lifetime. UK261348500038 will be the unique number of our new heifer calf. UK261=Surrey, 348= our herd, 5= a check digit and 00038 is the animal number.
After tagging the calf, this group of cattle were loaded into a trailer and moved to a fresh field south of Hackhurst. Flo the Belgium Blue cow is to the left of this picture with her 'Beltie' cross twins.
Tomorrow morning we’ll be moving steers and maiden heifers from the fields east of Hackhurst, to Raikes. The in-calf cows will remain in the fields to the east for the time being; they are due to calve in May-June.
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