Archived News

26th August 2010

Laurence was asleep and I was finishing paperwork when the phones began to ring just after midnight.  Reports from the local gamekeeper that cattle were out at Raikes.

Laurence went ahead in one vehicle and I followed shortly after, collecting David en route and meeting Donald up at the farm.  The cattle had stampeded through a couple of fences flattening relatively new posts and wire; something must have really spooked them to cause this extreme reaction.  We found the cattle in four locations, some had even jumped a further fence to join the field of Galloways. 

Another two staff and a couple of gamekeepers joined us in the pouring rain as the loose cattle were herded back to the safety of their field and fences were repaired.  It’s not so easy driving new fence posts into the ground by torchlight.

Two hours later we were back home, dripping wet and more than ready to sleep.

Back to the fields five hours later to check the cattle in daylight, count them, look for any injuries and sort the last of the Friesians out from the Galloways and move that final number to their own field.

It’s been a fortnight since harvesting at Shalford and since then just 100 acres have been cut at Hammer Fields, Coast Hill and Raikes. There is just 60 acres of wheat to harvest at Paddington and 50 acres of Triticale, all of which could be done in a good dry day with no break-downs.  That will then leave 250 acres of spring rape.