FARM DIARY
Goscombe Farm, Gundleton 2013
March started with spring calving, very long
hours carrying out regular 2-3 hourly checks
day and night; thank goodness very few
cows needed assistance calving which was
a huge relief after last Autumn’s calving
problems if you remember? a total of 21
born safe and well by the end of the month.
What a difference a year makes! Thinking
back to March 2012, 24 hours after the cows
calved they went out to grass, as the
weather was exceptionally nice, being dry
and fairly warm; but this year the continually
unsettled weather has meant the cattle have
had a long housed winter, creating a very
heavy workload that becomes exhausting
seven days a week, plus having to purchase
extra cattle food, the overheads have been
extensive this winter.
Most of Easter weekend was spent
preparing for the TB test booked for
Tuesday 2nd April with result day, Friday 5th.
Setting up handling systems at both
Goscombe and Bighton Bottom Farm, I
sometimes wonder what it would be like to
have an ordinary job, enjoy Bank Holidays
off, a long weekend doing nothing but
catching up on family, friends, relaxing,
shopping and even a lie-in, sounds quite
enjoyable but not an option for a livestock
farmer.
Early start on the Tuesday as all the cattle
had be bedded and fed prior to the vet,
Gordon arriving at 11am with his son to
assist with the record-keeping. Having
booked Hubby, Harriet and very kindly Andy,
12
Harriet’s boyfriend, who booked both days
off work to help, all four of us familiar with the
cattle and their individual characters.
The 131 cattle at Goscombe Farm were
tested first, moving each batch from different
barns to the test area, avoiding mixing any
batches, keeping cows and their calves
together, all very physical work, occasionally
quite vocal but having the additional help
made the job run relatively smoothly. Time
for a quick cuppa and cake before moving
down to BBF with another 87 to tested,
again having to move the different batches
around. Gordon informed us that he was
injecting about one a minute and reckoned
that was good going, so all that preparation
had paid off. 25 calves were under the 42
days so did not require testing and overall
the tested calves were better behaved than
I originally thought. George, the six-year-old
bull was the most difficult and thought it
would be a good idea to buckle a 16’ gate
just for fun, scary the damage he created in
a few seconds. Bulls Dickie and Fitzy were
very well behaved although too big to fit in
the crush so had to be injected while in the
race.
Two cows calved on day 1 of TB testing, one
in the morning, another in the afternoon, with
a third the following morning producing
unexpected twins, luckily Hubby and I were
on hand, as the second twin was breech with
one leg back. This required me to try and
push the calf back into the birth canal while
trying to free the twisted leg and avoiding
tearing her internally, all while the cow was