Wheat in Mouse City, who is top Tup round 2 and TB

The wheat is dry at Wallace field. We have had to treat it and leave it spread out in the barn as it was too wet when we cut it. The weather has not been very helpful in September. Now the moisture is down to 19% its okay to bag. Now bagging it by hand would be an enormous task but neighbour John who helps out on the machinery front has a plan. Scoop it all up with the tractor and put it in the big trailer then pour it into the bags from that. This is much easier and the job is soon well under way. The barn is something of a mouse city and several scurry away when we move some old sacks. Jess the dog bags one, living up to her terrier instinct, but they have made some serious holes in the sacks and so we have to get some more. We wonder if there is a market for organic mice… It is a fine afternoon and we put the world to rights over shovelling, pouring and moving the wheat around. It is very satisfying at the end of the day to see the bagged pile of wheat, stacked next to the mountain of hay and the straw. None of our animals will go hungry this winter.

The new Suffolk tup has arrived at Willowford. Its round two of who is top tup. Bob the Leicester will always be the big boss, he is never challenged, but Magnus the Gotland wants to make sure that the new guy knows that he is bottom of the pile. A funny scene ensues as Bob stands serenely in the middle of the pen while Magnus chases the Suffolk round and round him. Normally the tup’s head-butt but Magnus employs some rather more sneaky tactics, namely biting and kicking, at one point kicking the Suffolk in a rather delicate place. Soon order is established and reigning king Bob is still top tup with Magnus as his right hand sheep and our new fellow at the bottom. His name is decided as Geoff Woade, I’ll leave you to guess the obscure film reference.

I’m afraid I’ve been keeping quiet about one subject. I think I can tell you the tale now. We have several of our cattle around the county doing conservation grazing for the Wildlife trust, at Bowness-on-solway, Orton Moss and Thacka Beck in Penrith. Some of you may have heard there was an incident of TB near Penrith, which thankfully hasn’t spread but means that there is an exclusion zone surrounding the area that has gone into six month testing. The rest of Cumbria is generally on four year testing. We took three of our Longhorn boys to Thacka Beck and discovered some days later that this was several hundred yards into this exclusion zone, essentially putting our cattle into six month testing. If we were to bring them straight out and take them back to Houghton or Wallace Field that would put those areas into six month testing, and made us quite a number of enemies in the area. So they had to stay there to await their fate. There was an awful lot of debate; we simply can’t bring them back, what if they have to stay there till they go out? (They are store cattle who go to the abattoir at around 2.5 years old; they are all between 1.5 and 2 at the moment.) We would have to supplementary feed them there over winter. What happens when we take one to the abattoir, we will have to take the other two together as we can’t leave one alone, how will we sell all that beef? How on earth are we going to handle them, there’s no pen! And overriding it all, what if they get TB? That would be too horrible. After a few sleepless nights DEFRA decide that there is very little risk and that if they test clean after two months we can remove them without any restrictions. So a pen is erected and this week we get the vet in to test them. It’s a small jab, like the six needles I remember as a child, then we wait to see if there is any reaction. Any lumps or bumps and its curtains. Three days we have to wait for the results and when we get them in again on Thursday its smiles all round, no lumps, no reaction so we get them out of there sharpish. We bring them back to Wallacefield where they are reunited with some of the rest of the herd, four cows and calves and two of the other boys. There is an almighty moo-athon as they all catch up at the bottom of the field. There is a lot of tales to tell, sometimes I wish I spoke cow. I’m very glad the boys are back.