I was on the farm one morning and thinking about my next blog....I wanted to show people the reality of farming and what I actually do. I suddenly had the idea of wearing my GoPro camera for the day, and this was the result!!!....
It ‘s been a busy couple of weeks on the farm so I’ll briefly update you on what has been going on. · I’ve had a few people come to visit and find out what I get up to. Firstly a potential vet student came to gain farming experience prior to applying to Veterinary University. Whist Fred was here, I showed him the ropes of the daily routine as well as doing some pneumonia vaccinations and cattle worming. My old school friend, Abbi also came for a day, we had great fun manoeuvring the bobcat and “cruising” in the Landrover as well as getting all the work done. · Farming doesn’t come without its hazards! Since I’ve started I’ve managed to break an iPhone, bang my head, scalpel my hand, hit the deck a few times, been on the end of a couple of kicks and trodden toes. I’ve all but one bounced back straight away apart from a bang to the head where I had to take an hour off. · The annual agriculture show in Berkeley was on August Bank holiday Monday, but the weather definitely did not reflect the time of year or the recent weather patterns. The rain did not stop and I managed to get through 3 waterproof coats! Mum and Dad were given the job of overseeing the livestock judging, so I helped out by stewarding the Beef Cattle Ring. It was good to see how the showing circuit works and the attention the competitors put in to make their animals look their best. I have never had the urge to show our beef cattle but it may be something to consider if the right beast came along. · Dad and I agreed that we have the facilities and time to rear more new born calves up until the age of 12-14 weeks (roughly weighing 135kg) which are then ready to go onto forage based food such as grass and silage. We currently have 60 Aberdeen Angus’ and 20 Hereford calves that we do not own but are rearing for other farmers. The first couple of weeks in a calf’s life are crucial to their potential growth, therefore we aim on giving them the best start so they grow and develop at a constant rate. We are able to give the calves the attention they need during the early stages which other farms and farmers may not have the facilities or time to do so. It is also nice to have a few Herefords on the farm again, we even had the arrival of twins this week, which I was greatly surprised if not confused when logging their passport details on to the computer system.
· Dad has be busy hauling the straw from Badminton estate to the Farm. We now have 1150 rectangular bales of Barley straw for feeding and bedding the calves. Today he has been loading and bringing back 1000 bales of Wheat straw which is used for bedding the larger steers. Dad has had a few minor hiccups with the tractor hydraulics but hopefully all the bales will be back on the farm in the next couple of days. · Lots of people have been asking what I am doing about Netball this season since I am no longer at Bath, but I have recently joined Bristol based team Premier Romans who play in the National Prem 2 league. We had our first game on Sunday in Bolton and won by 2 goals which was a great result. We start as we mean to go on! |
Millie GreyFarmer's daughter graduated from the University of Bath now looking forward to the adventures of British Beef Farming! Archives
March 2018
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