Archived News

 22nd March 2018

Orchid was the first of our Belted Galloway cows to calve this year with a heifer calf on March 1st, followed by a quiet few days.

It felt very much as though the cows were waiting for the weather to warm up and in fact when the temperature rose from minus 8 degrees to plus 8, there was an increase in calving!

We have nineteen new calves so far, 10 of which are heifers and we're waiting patiently for another twelve cows to calve.

With snow covered ground and no grass available, we provide home grown haylage to the Belties which are outside.  I'm sure the cattle will be as pleased as me when spring arrives.

With warmer days, the soil will warm up and fresh grass will begin to grow as well as the multitude of native plants and herbs growing on the North Downs where the Belties will return to graze from the end of April.

Approaching us in April is a routine, 4 yearly TB testing of all our breeding females.  This will take place on two days, 72 hours apart and needs to be well organised because the cattle are situated in three locations and everything must be tested within a certain window of time.

The two bulls, Ethelred and Mister M will have their annual fertility test next month and providing that everything is still in good working order, the bulls will go back out with their cows in mid May.

The barns which house the Friesian x cattle during the winter are mucked out on a regular basis and the farm yard manure is stacked in heaps in the fields until it's required for fertilising the soil prior to the next crop being sown. 

We hire in the muck-spreaders for two of our staff to use as well as contracting a neighbour with his own muck spreader.

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