New Year, New Calves

15th January 2022.Reading time 9 minutes.

Hello again folks, and Happy New Year! Although, it’s just a new set of days with a date ending in a 2 instead of a 1, isn’t it? The new year never really holds much significance for me. I prefer to count in moments, not years, or else the comparison between other years and others’ […]

Z for Zoonoses

23rd December 2021.Reading time 7 minutes.

Welcome to the final instalment of this A-to-Z Farm Dictionary Advent Calendar!

I had a few options for Z, but one won out, mainly thanks to its strange name and sometimes comical but also very serious meaning […]

W for Withdrawal Period

22nd December 2021.Reading time 4 minutes.

On our farm, like most, we use every tool we have in our toolbox when it’s necessary, to ensure our animals are healthy. And sometimes, this means using antibiotics and painkillers for issues that need them.

But all our beef is still free from any of those medicines because […]

V for Vernalisation

21st December 2021.Reading time 4 minutes.

Bet you didn’t think I had anything for ‘V’ hiding away!

We’re back to the sciencey stuff today with another trip down technical-lane, this time though, we’re delving into something arable-related instead of cows…

U For All Things Udder-Related

20th December 2021.Reading time 6 minutes.

When we’re selecting which cows to breed replacements from (heifer calves who will join the herd and carry on that breeding line), one of the most important criteria to us is udder confirmation. It’s up there in the top three […]

T for the dreaded TB

19th December 2021.Reading time 9 minutes.

TB is at the centre of all cattle farmers’ nightmares, and is a very real, living nightmare for hundreds of them. Here in the UK, this devastating disease meant almost 40,000 cattle had to be killed in England and Wales during just the last 12 months […]

S for Seasonal Breeders

18th December 2021.Reading time 4 minutes.

White sheep with lambs in a field with the a graphic of an red and gold bauble with a gold 18 in it in the top centre of the picture.

If you’ve been watching farming programmes on tv, or paying attention to what you see in the fields at different times of the year, you might have noticed you usually see newborn lambs bounding around in Spring, but see piglets and calves at all times of the year. In the wild, animals evolved to breed […]

R for Ruminant

17th December 2021.Reading time 8 minutes.

It’s day 17 of this Farm Dictionary Advent Calendar and today, we’re delving into Ruminants… What is one and what makes them different?

P for PD’ing

16th December 2021.Reading time 5 minutes.

Every autumn (or winter, if time runs away with us) comes one of the most nail-biting days in our farming calendar… PD’ing…

O for Out-Wintering

15th December 2021.Reading time 5 minutes.

Black cow grazing grass face on to camera. Red and gold bauble with gold 15 bottom centre of image.

No two farms are the same, and neither are the systems that work for them. In Britain, there are so many different options when it comes to how to keep your cattle, what to feed them and how to get through the winter months, it all depends on where you farm and what you’re farming. […]