Archived News

1st June 2008

Already into the sixth month of the year, time flies too fast!  Laurence is sub-soiling at Coast Hill and Tillingbourne, the sub-soiler breaks up the soil below the surface, loosening the soil,  before Roy comes along with the power harrow which prepares the seed bed for the last of the maize to be drilled.  It is a little late to be drilling maize but that's the way things go on a busy farm.  This field work couldn't be done until the cattle had been moved out of the fields and the cattle work has been intense over the past three or four weeks.

Tomorrow and Tuesday we have two school visits from St.John's School Dorking, plus a visit from the staff of the Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).  I have been sweeping out the barn and checking the display material only to find that mice have been munching their way through the seed and corn we use as props!

Over the next two weeks we will be giving all the cattle their second dose of Bluetongue vaccine.  The sheep only need one dose.  Although it's hard work getting about 100 cattle at a time into a holding area in the field, the actual process of administering the vaccine has been quick and very efficient using the Sterimatic Multi Dose System. 

Because the Bluetongue virus could be transmitted from one animal to another in their blood a clean needle is required for avery injection.

The system we are using has really made this part of the job much simpler. As the needle passes through the Stericap it is disinfected on it's way into the animal and then again after as it passes back out, so it is ready for the next injection and the next animal.  We can use each Stericap for up to 100 injections which saves a lot of time.

My computer blew up about a month ago and so I have an a spare one which is driving me mad at the moment.  I can't find where anything is stored any more and then when I finally do, the computer won't let me open or edit the documents.  All I wanted to do was create some 'Latest News' posters to put up around the farm, but this will have to wait until our very helpful computer whizz  can do something practical,  which will be far more useful than me shouting at it!