Early Morning In The Cow Shed

It's an earlier morning this morning because I'm taking the car in for service, so I've been not time yet. I've just been and done the hens and watered the polytunnel. So I thought I'd just come and say hello to the cows, and I'm not going to be feeding them today because it's too early. So yeah, it's lovely and quiet in here, and they're all looking at me, but um, it's not reached that point where they're so hungry that they're shouting. So I'm just standing in front of bay three.

So 39 is still lying down looking at me. 21 is having a bit of a scratch on the hay manger. And they're all gearing up anyway, but I'm just being fairly quiet with them. But they're all looking good. Um, 62 jumped over the hurdle. So 62 was in bay one and she's now in bay two, but she seems more settled with the calves in bay two. Um, so we've got some odd numbers going on now. We've got a four, a six, a six. What are you? I think you're a six, five, three, and a two.

So, um, yeah, the logistics of feeding has changed because we've only got one feeder with six teats, one with three, and one with five. So, um, yeah, we sort of mix it up a bit. But yeah, it's um, it's a lovely morning. It's quite cool. Um, you can hear the uh, pigeons, I think that is, in the trees, and there's another poppy, a pink one, has just opened up. So I've got loads of poppies in the garden. Um, so I'm hoping that there'll be a really good display.

Um, but yeah, the calves are all quite quiet, and uh, 35 is trying to stand on 39. She's standing on you, that's not good, is it? 39, so sweet. So, yeah, let's have a look. So we've got the two at the end. Um, they're quite quiet today, so they must be all right. But um, one of them, Mrs. Shouty, tells me what she wants. She tells me when they've run out of water and she wants hay and things like that, but I'm not going to give them anything today because otherwise, um, it'll just confuse matters.

We've got um, Tiny, who's the smallest one. She's 88, 89 is her twin. Um, so they're known as free martins because if you have twins in cows and one’s a male, the female's gender is in question. Um, I don't know, it's to do with hormones and things like that. So you would never be able to breed from the female. Um, so you have to mark that on the passport um, for the cows.

When that happens, I've just heard Mo, who's our cockerel, start crowing as well. Um, so I don't know, you might not be able to hear that. But yeah, they're all getting much bigger, uh, taller long legs. Um, we've got a few different ages in here now. So, um, 39, I'm not sure how old he'll be. Probably eight or nine weeks now. Um, and some of these will be going out into the paddock fairly soon. We're trying to wean them as well, so they're not all being fed twice a day now.

And um, we're giving them lots of uh, barley straw and hay. Um, so yeah, there's not much left in their bays. They've eaten it all. But the others are still on milk and not eating as much hay. So yeah, there's a mix of different stages, and that's probably not sure if that's Douglas or Eric. So yeah, there you go, early morning in the cow shed. All quite quiet on the western front.