Date Details 07 July 2006 The rams are in with 500 ewes for lambing in November. We put one ram with 40 ewes. The gestation period for sheep is 5 months less a week. Peacher man the bull is in with his 30 cows for calving in March. We're keeping an eye out for slugs in the kale we have planted for the sheep to eat next January - we may have to put slug pellets down We're hoping to cut grass for hay at the weekend but we need a good weather forecast for at least 5 days Jack, our 3 year old collie went missing on Wednesday afternoon after being frightened by the thunder. After endless phone calls to vets, the police and neighbours we eventually found him yesterday evening thank goodness. He's very pleased to be home! 14 July 2006 Having got afavourable long range forecast we cut several fields for hay yesterday, so fingers crossed that the forecasters are right. We will turn the cut grass probably twice a day to speed up the drying process. Preacher Man the bull is lame on his right back leg which, apart from the discompfort it is causing him is a problem as he may not feel like serving the cows so they may not get in calf. We got him in the cattle crush on Monday (not an easy job as he weighs over a ton!) and checked to make sure he didn't have a stone caught in his foot - nothing there - looks like an infection, so he has been prescribed a cause of antibiotics. We got him in again yesterday for his second injection which was even more diffcult because he knew what was going to happen! These treatments are recorded on our farm management software so that we have a complete record of any treatments he has had through his life. Getting ready for our first BBQ on Tuesday and thinking up clues for the treasure hunt. 20 July 2006 Bought a new young bull to help Preacher Man out. He is the same breed as Preacher, a pedigree Limousin. This is a French breed renowned for producing excellent beef. The cows we have are South Devon crossed with Red Aberdeen Angus. The new bull was born last March and is called Agreeabull - not a spelling mistake, but the sense of humour of the breeder, Robert Partridge from Teignmouth in Devon! Preacher Man came from him as well. We are hoping to take the rams away from the ewes today. They have been with them for 6 weeks. Taking them out now means we stop lambing in the second week in December and not over Christmas! 30 July 2006 Have finished combining all the oats and barley and managed to bale all the straw before it rained. We make about 2000 small straw bales which we store in the shed for bedding for the sheep in the winter, and make the rest into big round bales for bedding for the cattle in the winter. The round bales are stored outside and have to be moved with a tractor and loader. Making and moving the small bales is much harder work, but when we are lambing it is easier for us to use them to bed up the small individual pens that the ewes and lambs have. We are very short of grass and are feeding hay to all the cattle which is unusual at this time of year. We were glad to see some rain yesterday, but need a lot more - not what the holiday-makers want to hear! Agreeabull - the new Limousin bull has settled in well. 21 August 2006 All the harvest is in. The grain and straw are in the shed ready for the winter. When we had our annual cattle TB test a few months ago there were 2 calves that reacted and were deemed as "inconclusive" as to whether they had TB or not. These were retested by a Defra vet last week, and much to our relief were passed clear. This means that the cattle movement restriction that was placed on us has now been removed. 27 September 2006 Sorry that there hasn't been any diary for some time, but we have been rather overwhelmed by the amount of visitors we have had! The summer has gone very well for us and the people who have visited us seem to have enjoyed the food and the entertainment - particularly the pig racing!! And the great excitement is that the weekly farmer's market that we run in the summer is one of 3 in the the South West nominated for the Country Life national farmer's market award. If you visited the market and would like to vote for us you can do so by visiting www.countrylife.co.uk/farmersmarkets 27 September 2006 All the ewes due to lamb in November were ultra-sound scanned on 5th September to see how many lambs they are carrying. The results are: 59 having triplets 344 having twins 93 having singles 27 not in lamb The in lamb ewes have now been divided into whether they are having singles, twins or triplets so that we can give them extra feed accordingly. The triplets are pampered from now on with extra corn and protein twice a day. The doubles have extra corn once a day, and the singles just have grass until closer to lambing. This means that they are in the right condition and that the lambs inside them are the right size at lambing. This way we minimise lambing problems. We have looked at the ones that aren't in lamb and put any young ewes back to the rams together with last year's ewe lambs and the rest of the ewes to lamb in February. 6 old ewes not in lamb have been culled. 27 September 2006 Unfortunately Preacher Man the bull had to be taken to the abattoir last week. He was getting very arthritic in his legs and we wanted him to go before he got worse and the weather got cold and wet. Mike took him up in our trailer so that he didn't have to go in a lorry with cattle from other farms. A very sad day. 27 September 2006 All the cows have been pregnancy tested by the vet. Only 3 were either not in calf or in the first 5 weeks of pregnancy when they couldn't be detected. These cows together their calves, Morag the Highland cow, her calf Kieran and her 2 year old heifer calf are with the new bull Agreeabull. All the others are in a separate field. Two cows that are too old to have another calf have been taken to the abattoir (Big Ears & No. 12) - we get very upset when they have to go. 27 September 2006 We are very short of grass and still no rain. This parish has one of the lowest annual rainfalls in Cornwall at 29 inches. Usually even if we have a very dry summer it would have rained by now and the grass would really start to grow. The worry is that when it does rain the soil temperature will be too low for the grass to grow. We usually sell some grain at this time of year, but will keep all our surplus so that we have extra stock feed should we need it. The only problem is that we have no cash coming in from grain sales. Fingers crossed that it rains soon 31 October 2006 We've started lambing! Had one set of triplets, one double and one single today. 15 December 2006 Apologies that there have been no entries in this diary for some time. We have been very busy lambing. We started lambing at the beginning of November but it was very slow for the first 2 - 3 weeks when we had lovely weather. As soon as the weather turned wet and miserable they all lambed at once! 330 lambed in one week so none of us got much sleep then. We check the lambing at least every three hours day and night while we are lambing. I start at 5.00 am and try and get to bed about 9.00 PM. Mike stays up to 2.00 am and gets up at about 9.00 am if we're not too busy. Over the busiest 2 - 3 weeks he didn't get to bed until I got up at 5. Anyway only one left to lamb now and from 500 ewes lambed I have tagged 917 lambs. Becuase we had about 70 sets of triplets and only ever expect the ewes to rear two lambs we have quite a few bottle fed lambs. If you want to help feed them come to Carruan and help us. Our winter opening hours are: Monday & Tuesday closed (but available for private parties or meetings) Wednesday - Friday 10.00 am - 4.00 PM Saturday & Sunday 9.00 am - 4.00 pm We have ultasound scanned 420 young ewes due to lamb in February. We expect a lower lambing percentage from these as half of them are first time lambers. The results are: 9 TRIPLETS 201 TWINS 193 SINGLES 21 NOT IN LAMB