Going via the road, blood tests and carrot not stick...

We are trying to take greatest advantage of the grass available to us at Wallacefield, this means moving people around quite a bit. We are taking four of the heifers to chestnut field, which is always something of a mission as they generally wont cross the stream down the bank so have to go by the road. It has to be a military planned operation and I am dispatched to just after the turn off to make sure they don’t head off toward Carlisle. After a while I can hear a commotion, three distinctive Longhorn heads peek over the hill and come trotting towards me. Where is number four? They are swiftly herded into the field and I find out what has happened, the fourth has decided to take a detour at the junction (weakest point in the journey) and has jumped the fence to make friends with a herd of young black and whites belonging to a neighbour. Chaos of course ensues. I’m told to sit tight while they try and retrieve her and send her my way, got to guard the road. Eventually after several minutes and lots of shouting the last pointy head appears on the road. I shoo her into the field with her herd mates, who she proceeds to tell the tale to. I guess I missed the excitement on this one, but I think I’m glad.
The other week we had some of the herd blood tested to see if there was a mineral deficiency that was causing Hadley not to get in calf. The results came back this week and it seems we do have a deficiency in both Selenium and Copper, Selenium deficiency can effect fertility, but any deficiency is not good and copper was way down. After a swift consultation with our vet and the Soil Association it is decided that a mineral bolus should be given to the breeding herd, we will gradually give it to them all over the next few weeks. They are the same size as the ones we gave to the sheep at Willowford a few weeks back, but cattle have considerably bigger heads so it shouldn’t be as difficult. The size of the bolus gun is ridiculous though. Im glad they will be in the horned crush when we do it. On another note Hadley hasn’t been seen bulling since we PD’ed the cattle, could it be she is in calf now?
Sometimes a bit more carrot and a lot less stick is needed. We are moving the sheep at Willowford and Bob the Leicester and his ladies are going into one of the small front fields that is a bit of a nightmare as the entrance is behind Hadrian’s wall down a little path. Luckily for us there are a couple of wily old Swaledale’s in this group, and of course Bob, who know what the rattle of a bucket means. Once in the main field I get ahead of them and rattle away, the two old bird’s ears prick up and they come wandering over, I entice them down the path and herd instinct means all the others follow. Once they are in the field I make sure they get some of the treats in the bucket, positive reinforcement, they will remember and the trick will work again.
This week’s picture is and example of modern farming, meeting in the potting shed with laptop and chainsaw…