Dove Farm Diaries
Farmhouse Breakfast week 2011
cows having breakfast
Thought you might like to see what the cows have for breakfast in their winter accommodation?
It is Farmhouse Breakfast week 2011 after all!
We feed the cows on silage, which is basically pickled grass.
In the summer, we make big round bales out of wilted grass (dry -ish but not too dry) and then wrap them in black plastic. This seals in the remaining moisture, and the grass is preserved until we open up the bales in winter. If the seal is broken, and air gets in – then the silage can go mouldy. If the grass is too wet, when it is baled, then it ferments too much and is not very palatable by winter….and it stinks.
Fortunately – we’ve got some good silage this year, and the cows certainly tuck into it.
The gaps in the feed barrier are just about big enough for the bull to get his head through, if he does half a turn of his head, before sticking his head through. It’s a technique he perfected last winter, and I was glad to see that his head hadn’t got any bigger over the summer!
Just in case you were imagining that all farmers have full English breakfast every day – they don’t. Maybe it depends if they have a farmer’s wife to cook for them each morning. There’s definitely a farmer’s wife at Dove Farm, but she doesn’t cook breakfast – well, maybe on a Sunday.
So – it’s toast again then.
Posted in cattle, farm animals, Life on the Farm | cattle, Derbyshire, Dove Farm, farm blog, farmhouse breakfast week, farmlife, Staffordshire | 
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Leave a commentTill the cows come home
mending fences
The cows had a final fling, before they came in (very late) for the winter. They went running up the riverbank at dove farm, and broke through the fence at the end.
Not such a problem if there was nothing in the neighbouring field – Unfortunately, the neighbour’s cows, looking almost exactly the same as ours – were stamping about, waiting to have a party.
Result: one double-size herd of cows.
When a farmer gets one of ‘those’ phonecalls – it makes your heart sink:
“your cows have got through the fence. They’re all mixed up with my cattle.”
You know there is a logistical and bureaucratic nightmare ahead, as you dig out all the cattle passports, to verify which animals belong where, and find there’s at least one animal that’s lost its ear tags…
Anyway, by nightfall, our lot had had enough, and came back through the gap in the fence, back down the riverbank, and home to their own fields at dove farm.
“Bless” said Jane, “Bloody animals” I said. Today I was hammering that fence within an inch of its life – so they don’t try that stunt again in the Spring.
Posted in cattle, farm animals, fencing, Life on the Farm | Derbyshire, Dove Farm, farmlife, river Dove, Staffordshire | Leave a comment
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