A Month on the Farm
by Libby and Lisa Buchanan
So much has been happening at Black Ven Farm over the last few months. The first crop of calves has arrived and so far so good. They are healthy and happy and, thanks to good silage from last Summer, their mums are giving lots of milk. The big group starts imminently!
Last year we installed cameras in the barns and what a difference they make. Instead of having to get up twice during the night to check them, it is now just a matter of looking at the phone to check all is well. And we have clever “Moocalls” fitted on the tails of the most expectant, which send a message to our phone when the cow is an hour or so off calving by picking up electrical activity in the spinal cord.
This is where technology really helps to improve the welfare of the cows and calves, which is top of our list of priorities. And it helps the humans too!
We are on the hunt for a new bull. It is necessary to bring in new blood every three or so years to avoid fathers doing things they oughtn’t with daughters or sisters. It is a huge decision to take and so we have been scouring the country (or at least Kent, Sussex and Hampshire) to find the perfect chap. We aren’t there yet, but are hopeful. We need to find him soon to give us time to TB and blood test him before he leaves his farm and then, once he arrives here, isolate him and test him again three weeks later to ensure no diseases are brought into our herd. He should be starting work in the middle of March so time presses!
We have been busy in the fields too. We took advantage of the weirdly dry weather at the beginning of February to spread last year’s manure, careful not to spread near watercourses to avoid high nitrate levels getting into the water systems.
Thanks to the Sussex Wildlife Trust and the Woodland Trust – and in honour of The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee - we have planted 250 metres of new hedge on the only field boundary on the farm without one. We have added ten pussy willows too, which pollinators love in the early Spring. And we have been filling in gaps in existing hedges creating uninterrupted nature corridors giving shelter and food to all sorts of insects, mammals and birds.
We had a building that partially collapsed due to one of the many storms last year and we have managed to get it rebuilt which means we have somewhere to put all our kit again. Phew!
So it is all go at the farm and, although it isn’t quite Springtime, the snowdrops are out and the birds are looking where to nest.