A lot of exciting things happened towards the end of 2017 with the highlights being the arrival of four Hereford Bull Calves and Belle the Working Cocker Spaniel. Steve and I wanted to buy some calves that would stand out from the rest of the Aberdeen Angus' cattle, so the Hereford Breed seemed a good choice. Our motivation to buys calves of our own stems from the fact that we love a project and if it generates a profit then thats a bonus! We decided to closely monitor the daily live weight gain (DLWG) in order to determine whether there were minor flaws in our current calf rearing practice. On arrival the Herefords (also known as Harry, Henry, Herbie and Hugo) were weighed and vaccinated against pneumonia. We then often spent a few hours during the weekend weighing them at monthly intervals and were glad to find out they were putting on just over 0.9kg per day during the milk and weaning stage. Any calf rearer aspires to get a DLWG of 1kg per day, however since they were all coming from different sources through market, along with other stressors such as the poor winter weather and castrating; we were very happy with their progress. The four Herefords are now weaned and have moved into a larger shed along with some other aberdeen angus calves. Our future plans for the calves is not set in stone, nevertheless, we wish to take one all the way through to slaughter and maybe sell the other 3 as stores at market. They even have their own instagram account, so if you wish to follow their progress just search 'grovesend_herefords'. The other addition came in late November when Belle arrived on the scene! We had always hoped to get a cocker spaniel but wanted to make sure the time was right. In early June, Steve and I moved into a house in Thornbury and with just a bathroom to renovate we started looking for puppies. We found Belle at 10 days old, so it was a long time coming when we finally picked her up 7 weeks later! She is great company and very intelligent, but she also takes up a lot of time so our road bikes have retired (for now) in the spare bedroom! Belle comes to work with me every day and enjoys the farm life as well as playtimes with Ruby and Ted. |
So Back to the Farm..... The summer of 2017 was very productive and one that I'll always remember as the 'Summer of Concrete'! We are lucky that both farms in the business are concrete rather than rubble, yet with the machinery getting larger and heavier they were starting to break up and in need of some maintenance. With Dad being the practical type and no job too large, he started digging away at the old concrete. He spent many hours on his beloved digger and prepared the yard for lorry loads of concrete to be delivered. He even called upon Steve with his surveying kit to sort out the levels in order to prevent rain run off going into the cattle sheds.
The summer was a great time to lay the concrete as the majority of the cattle were grazing the fields and so less tractors and machines were driving over it on a daily basis. With the team of Mum, Dad, David and I, we laid over 21 cubic metres of concrete per day for about 6 days! By the end of the summer, we had all had gained 1st class honours in laying concrete and one lorry driver even suggested contracting us out! Thats one thing I love about farming....its so diverse and you are always adding skills you your repertoir.
So as we moved into winter, more cattle were being housed inside and the high levels of rainfall meant this came earlier than previous years. The poor harvest of straw and low yield of silage is a constant reminder as we are always being careful with our rationing. This makes it quite a challenging time for farmers as the expense to draw on external sources is very costly. 2017 proved to be successful year as we finished more fat cattle, reared more calves and also sent 29 stores to market. Bring on 2018!