Hi
I had forgotten all about this blog - I have been so busy trying to get my new website up and running. However thanks to a contact I made on LinkedIn I have refound it now and here we go again!!!
Well, we have had a good few weeks here at Low Arvie - we got the second cut of silage all done in good order at the end of August - 45.5% dry matter. Not as good as the first cut which was 75% DM but nevertheless we are very please with it for our rainy climate here in SW Scotland.
All the 'Ladies' are now mooching round the cut fields and awaiting their calves. We have three already, the last one born today. Two of them are to first time heifers and all well so far. When Lady Zoe gave birth to her first calf back in June, she nearly killed it and had to be separated from it for the first night, so its a relief that these two have done so well. Mind you we have never had a problem like that before with our heifers, so hopefully it was a one off.
The weather has been warm for several days and I was hoping that more of the calves would be born, but now it has begun to turn colder, wetter and blowier. However, our cows and calves are hardy and don't seem to suffer in the weather, so its mainly me that worries.
Our hired bull, of German extraction and named Baron, has gone out today and hopefully will be overcome by the beauty of our 'Ladies' and create some lovely new Galloways for next autumn for us.
The swallows left us this week and the farmyard has been eerily quiet lately - I miss hearing their chitter chatter and watching them dive bomb David and Henry, who would love to catch one of them but never will, I suspect. It also means that autumn is well and truly upon us - the nights are dark by 8pm now and the leaves are colouring more and more each day. The woods and lanes are bereft of their summer flower adornments now, but the rowan and hawthorn bnerries make up for it in part.
Well, all for now,
Take care,
Lxx
