FARM DIARY
Goscombe Farm, Gundleton 2012
March continued with regular new arrivals
on the farm. The majority of the cows
seem to calve at night, and while it is
quieter, it’s tiring when you’re on call seven
days a week. The Cheeky girls are thriving
but twins are not ideal due to various
complications: a second cow produced
twins a few days after Mrs Jedward but
very sadly both calves were stillborn. The
death of any of my animals affects me
greatly no matter how it occurs; at these
times you do not need to be reminded of
the old saying ‘When you have livestock
you have dead stock’.
Chris (hubby) decided I needed some
retail therapy to cheer me up, so after
lunch and having arranged a few hours
cover for the animals it was into the pickup
and off: no! not West Quay or Festival
Place but West Sussex to buy a new
Charolais breeding bull; he knows how to
spoil me!.
I run three Charolais bulls with my 100+
suckler cows. I lost my old bull Sydney last
May; he had been with me for nine years,
producing many quality calves. He was a
much-loved
character
but
needed
replacing.
My two other Charolais bulls are firstly,
‘Bromham Careful’, (Bromham being the
herd name followed by the breeder choice
which has to begin with the prefix letter for
the year of birth, so 2007 is a ‘C’, 2008 a
‘D’ and so on). As you can imagine the
thought of calling ‘Careful’ across the field
12
just would not work, so he was given the
pet name of George (sorry not a ‘C’).
George is a polled bull (no horns) and his
being the dominant gene means the
majority of his calves are polled which
makes for easier calving due to the shape
of the head (plus no de-horning). The
second bull, ‘Farleycopse Dictator’, Dickie
for short, 2008-born, was bought for his
figures which show things like growth rate,
ease of calving, muscle depth, maternal
traits, and so on. Dickie’s figures put him
in the top 1% of his breed and his calves
are evidence of that with tremendous
growth rate.
Mike, the Scottish Farleycopse Charolais
herds man had a choice of three 18 monthold bulls for hubby and me to see and after
much debate, coffee, biscuits, and chat
about the world, the choice was made:
‘Farleycopse Fitzgerald’ would join the
herd in April. Leaving I felt happier
although a few thousand pounds lighter.
The fantastic spring weather in March
meant that the decision was made to take
the freshly-calved cows and their calves
from Goscombe to Bighton Bottom Farm
(BBF), Gundleton; having the facilities at
BBF has enabled my farm business to
continually expand and my thanks go to
the Terrill family.
The cows and calves thrived in the lovely
warm grassy fields but what a difference a
month makes! Well I know we needed the
rain but April showers were an