Mrs Down's Diary- August 20 2008

Bryony and family are a case in point. Came for the afternoon on Thursday. Left Sunday evening, reluctantly, but Chris had to get to work, but left Jessica with us.

This weekend we have about 40 friends here for a clay shoot, so as quite a few are staying over, I feel that cooking, cleaning and running around after imperious granddaughter has taken my life over completely.

And in the midst of all this John combined the barley. Without Geoff, and with me out of the running with grandchildren to care for, he has had to pace himself to get corn trailers home and the barley augured up into the grain bins for winter feed for the bullocks. But it is all done.

Very satisfying. The barley has not been as good a crop as he wished for, but it is a very clean sample.

John was advised to spray for black grass last autumn. It knocked the barley back badly and it has never really recovered. "I shan't be doing that again," he said.

John agreed at the time that blackgrass might be a problem but feels it is more of an issue not have the yield he expected. But that apart, he is very pleased to have the crop out of the field and in the barn.

Also in the barn, are our swallow chicks, now seasoned travellers. Two weeks ago we found their nest in our trailer. Luckily we were able to make use of a friend's trailer to transport cattle to market, but yesterday, with two pens of lambs to go in, the trailer was not available to us. So the chicks had to take to the road.

Mum was not impressed. As soon as the trailer was returned to its normal parking place she was straight back on the nest, chattering angrily.

The journey had not taken too long and everything in the nest seems back to normal. Fortunately we do not need the trailer for another couple of weeks again so by then they may be well on their way to quitting the nest. Time will tell. It was just unfortunate timing that both farming familles needed the trailer at the same time.

Lamb prices are so much better this year. Last year was disastrous. The threat of foot and mouth from the virus escape at the government research centre in Pirbright, slapped an immediate movement restriction on all livestock.

As a result, when it was lifted, all the lambs came on the market at the same time. Prices were horrendously low. John swore to go out of sheep completely, but although our numbers have dropped, we still have a flock.

Normally we run three or four Suffolk tups with the flock, but with reduced numbers, we have a Texel and two Suffolks. The Texel has done us proud. Much better than our previous Texel tup which was either very shy of female company, did not know how to get his act together or was simply beaten to the post by more experienced tups. Not a problem with this Texel.

At the market John was surprised how many white faced lambs were in. The Texel throws white faced lambs, the Suffolks, lambs with black faces. "They are a rarity now," the auctioneer told John. "Don't get many in at all." Perhaps we should go for rare breed status with ours.