THE past week has delivered yet another mixture of weather, with chilly winds coming from a mainly northerly direction and periods of warm sunshine. There have also been blustery storms, some accompanied by lightning, thunder and hail.

After studying the weather forecasts for the past few weeks, we decided that as long as there was not going to be a prolonged period of rain, the autumn born calves could at last be turned out to graze. We used our own livestock trailer and one borrowed from Stowell Farm, to take the calves from the barn to the field. We then stayed with them for about an hour, standing in the corners of the field, whilst they became accustomed to their new surroundings, especially the boundary fences. A few days later the in-calf heifers were moved to a fresh field on foot. Fortunately they were very calm and the move along a road went smoothly.

Now all the cattle are in fields checking them daily takes longer, as close inspection is needed to spot any signs of illness or injury, such as lameness or mastitis and eye problems, which can be caused by the increase in flies.

One of the young calves was seen to be lame at the end of the week, so had to be brought back to a barn for treatment. It was found to have 'foul of the foot', a condition caused by an injury to the soft tissue between the claws of the hoof becoming infected by a bacteria, which produces inflammation and swelling often visible around the pastern and fetlock. The young heifer was given an antibiotic and is making a speedy recovery.

Our last heifer to calve, named Dornee Red, gave birth to an Aberdeen Angus x bull calf, at the beginning of the week. Dornee Red's mother came to us from Holland in the autumn of 2010. Her first calf was a bull, followed by four heifers in each of the following years, so she is now in her fifth lactation, expecting her sixth calf on September 19 this year. She has been a good cow, giving a high yield of milk each lactation (approx 305 days in milk each year) ,with an average fat content of 4.93% and protein of 3.37%, both very good results. Dornee Red's mother has also had her calves 12 months apart, which is ideal. Her next daughter to calve will be Mincio Dornee, who is due on September 9, the same day as she is due.

There have been odd jobs and repairs needed here on Manor Farm. An electric fence has to be moved regularly, to give the milking cows a strip of fresh grass every day. This method of feeding is called 'strip grazing'. Ryan has been spreading more dirty water from the slurry store, and Ian finishing off spaying a fungicide on the last few acres of our cereal crops. The fuel gauge on one of the tractors was not working properly, so an engineer was called to repair the sensor.

At the beginning of the week Melissa and I held a Pony Club Badge Rally here on the farm. The badges we instructed on were 'wild flowers' and 'butterflies and moths'. We did this by taking the children on a farm walk along the hedgerow on two sides of a field of oilseed rape. We identified 27 different flowering plants and saw 23 butterflies. It was almost impossible to identify the butterflies as they were all moving too fast, but we estimated there were about five different species, including peacock, orange tip and wood white.