In my last article I was talking about the dry weather we had in the spring… well, that didn’t last long as July and August were very wet! I feel for all the parents out there who had a horrible summer in the rain, only for us to get a heat wave in the first week back to school! Despite the bad weather we have managed to get our harvest done, although we have had to snatch at it between the rain showers. We were also lucky that the dry spell at the beginning of September allowed us to get all the second cut done in one go. It is always a good feeling to know that ‘all is safely gathered in’ and after a summer like this you can understand why farming folks celebrate harvest supper! I will also give a shout out to the arable guys. They normally harvest their cereal crops through August, but this year was terrible for them. The rain beat crops to the ground and some even germinated on the ear because it was so wet. This can seriously affect the quality of the crop, its yield and its value. It also had to be artificially dried to prevent it rotting which also adds a lot of energy and cost to already very tight margins.
So, this summer whilst gathering cows for TB testing, I managed to have another run-in with a quad bike and a trip to Derriford. This time it was only one cracked rib, a dislocated finger and a fractured pelvis. The staff at Derriford were amazing and I was whisked through the system pretty fast and given a full body scan and MOT! Fortunately, my fracture didn’t need pinning and I was packed off home with a bag full of drugs and a pair of crutches for a few weeks. Gemma was not that pleased, as you can imagine! When I had my last ‘incident with a quad’ she was very concerned about me and only cross with me once she knew I was ok, this time she went direct to waspy. I am making a good recovery and back out and about on the farm, but I will also endeavour to be more careful! I would like to thank my sister Bev for taking me to hospital and patiently waiting for me to be processed. I would also like to give a big hand to the lads and Ida my niece who work with us. They really had to step up with a TB test to do and everything else to cope with. I think they missed me out there, although I think I got a bit annoying asking too many questions and hobbling around the yard peering over the gates. But well done team!
We have just had our South West mule group sale at Tavistock Market; this sale of cross bred females is held every September. We cross our older hill Scottish Blackface and Swaledale sheep which are very hardy breeds and good mothers, with a Blueface Leicester ram - a fast growing, early maturing, prolific breed. The cross is known as a mule and is a common way farmers in the uplands of Britain add significant value to the stock we produce. Lowland farmers buy our mules for a premium as they retain the best traits from both parents, giving us good hardy mothers, which grow well and often have twins or triplets. The sale this year was one of the best we have seen for years with our lambs achieving about £20 a head more than they would be worth for meat. Most of the success can be attributed to Ida. She has done a fantastic job looking after the sale lambs and deserves a lot of credit for the way they sold.
My final tribute this time is to my other niece Bryony who lost her horse Lady a few weeks ago. Lady was a stunning big grey mare, and she and Bryony could be seen almost daily on the moor jumping gorse bushes or chasing cows with us. She died suddenly and it is always hard to lose a trusted companion, but she will live forever in our memories.