William and Andrew Cowx: Weather puts grass in short supply

I am sitting in the garden writing this article on a lovely summer’s evening with the birds singing and swallows flying and diving around.

We do not usually get much time to sit and enjoy the surroundings as there always seems to be a job to do on the farm.

The visitors to our camping barn say how beautiful and peaceful it is up here compared to their urban life, though I don’t think we appreciate it as we have been here all our lives.

Our grass is still very short, but we have had a little rain and it has been warmer. Silage will be late this year as we did not get the stock off the fields quickly and fertiliser did not get washed in until the recent rain.

Stock seems to be doing reasonably well, despite the shortage of grass. I don’t think we have had so few lame sheep for many years, probably due to the dry weather and short grass.

We have taken a few lambs to market, and at 40kg, one made £80. We find particularly the three-quarter Texels seem to get to 38kg and stop growing for a while, so we have to decide whether to sell at a rather lighter weight when the price is good, or wait until they are heavier, but probably at a lower price per kg.

We have had one or two deaths with mastitis, and two were found on their backs with their eyes pecked out by crows. How cruel nature can be.

The spring-calving cows have been sorted into three groups - two lots have been put with a bull and the third we hope to AI when they come into season.

It is always difficult in summer to get them in for insemination, so they come into the buildings for a little feed so we can catch them.

When the cows were in, we gave the calves their first bluetongue injection. All adult cattle have been done, so calves will have to come in again for the second injection in one month’s time. 

We are not going to vaccinate the sheep. If bluetongue does come, we can quickly give them one injection - hopefully it won’t. 

We have just had a session going around the farm spraying nettles and docks to try to keep the place tidy, while Andrew is busy pressure-washing the silage pits and buildings out after winter. We like to have them washed ready for next winter.

After a long battle with the planners, we are about to start a barn conversion, which we hope will be have ready to move into next year.

It would have been much easier to have bought a house Grass in short supply, but lameness in sheep at lowest level for yearslocally, but houses in this area are so expensive. 

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