William & Andrew Cowx: Magnetism of countryside footpaths has worrying undertones

We calve most of our cows in spring; the calves are young and the cows really protective.

As one-third of our land is covered by public footpaths, it is difficult to know what to do. I hope this farmer wins his appeal.

All our silage is gathered in and we help with leading grass, but everything else is done by the contractor.

The weather was good and it was cut, wilted and chopped in three days. I am banned from driving tractors at silage time as I’m considered too much of a liability, so have to settle for a supervisory role.

We have reseeded 10ha (25 acres) of grass which due to the good growing season, look well and will be good for the lambs at weaning.

Our slurry tower was almost overflowing but has now been spread on the silage fields and has had a good wash in, so I hope it saves us on fertiliser. We only need 8ha (20 acres) of second cut to fill the silage pits.

The shearers came on a very wet afternoon but fortunately we had been up early and got all the sheep under cover. This year, we had plenty of helpers but it is hard work for very little reward and I think perhaps the demand for wool is improving and hopefully the price.

The lambs have been dosed again for the second time and, about 50 have been sold fat, averaging £65. We seem to have a lot of lambs at 38kg, so they should soon be ready to go to auction.

This year, we are going to sell the better Texel cross ewe lambs at a breeding sale after fulfilling requirements for our own replacements. In the past, they have all gone fat.

The sale is not until late August, so there will be a little more keep on them but with so many cast ewes being sold at a good price, I hope ewe lambs will be in demand.

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