Cuddles With Calf 39 In The Cowshed

I'm just here in the cow shed with number 39. Everybody else is having a siesta, so there's only a couple of them standing up apart from 39, but I'm just stood here and I'm stroking 39's head because you're very tame, aren't you, and you're very friendly. So this morning I came and I helped feed them, and you weren't too bad this morning, were you? You quite well behaved, yeah? Some days bay three are just very fighty, and the milk bar gets head-butted a lot, but today they were okay, so yeah, I just thought I'd come and check on them.

We've just come to do a bit of work in the smallholding, so we're just doing weeding and strimming. I might transplant some of the lettuces. I need to put some protection in because we have a pair of red-legged partridges that come and visit, and they've been eating my broccoli, so I need to put some better barriers in place to stop them eating that; otherwise, we'll not have any broccoli, will we? So yeah, I just thought I'd have a minute.

Oh hello 35, how are you? So at the minute we've got 22 in here with some others due imminently. We're not sure when. It depends when they've all got passports because each animal has to have a passport to say where it's come from, where it's going, that it's fit to travel, and that everything is okay with it. So they could arrive any time. They might come today or over the weekend; we don't know yet.

Hello 35. Are you shy? They're all, well I wouldn't say shy. Some of them do come up when it's feeding time, but they're all sort of starting to become a bit more inquisitive. There's one or two like 39 and Little White Bull who have always come up to me pretty much from day one, and each day I make sure that I have cuddles with them and stroke them and talk to them, but gradually the others are coming up as well, aren't you? Hey, are you making an attempt today 35? Are you being shy again?

So yeah, I just think, I don't know if Phil would agree with me, Phil's the farmer, but I just think that having animals that trust you and are tame are easier to handle, so I always spend a bit of time with them getting them used to me, getting them used to being stroked. 39 is now sucking on my finger. It's not feeding time yet, love, is it? It's not feeding time, and you've got a lovely set of teeth, haven't you? Yeah, you have. I do love them; they're just brilliant and they're very cute, very sweet, lovely animals.

So these 39 is British Blue. Oh, we're in a good old suck there. We've got some Longhorns, but most of them are British Blues, and they've come from a dairy farm. You're very noisy, aren't you? Oh hello Pink Nose. Pink Nose always complains at feeding time because Pink Nose is in bay four, so they're always last to be fed, and yeah, you always hear from Pink Nose, don't we? Where's my breakfast? Where is it? Yeah, you're so noisy, aren't you, love? You are so noisy. Is it nearly feeding time for you? I don't know what time they feed you at night because I don't do that with you, do I?

So yeah, I just thought I'd share with you what happens in the cow shed; usually me talking to them a lot, talking rubbish, don't we? We talk rubbish, but you like it. Lots of cuddles, yeah, lots of cuddles, lots of sucking on my hands and my fingers, yeah, you are funny. Right then, so there you go, a few minutes with the calves, and I better get back and do some more weeding now and yeah, get on with some jobs.