With absolutely no let up in the rainfall and ground conditions continuing to deteriorate, a decision was made to take cattle in at the beginning of last week, before they could do damage to the wetter areas of pasture. While our hill pasture remains traversable, it also has very little shelter and the cows walking between fields would have created miniature swamps in any place they would travel through numerous times a day.

At first, the cows were rather indignant at being taken indoors so early in the year, but after a couple of days with hay and a small amount of ration, they soon decided that perhaps it was better to be indoors with their feed provided, instead of traipsing through muck and having no dry area to lie on at night.

The calves have taken to feeding twice a day very well and while they are eating, the slats are cleaned down. After just a week it’s a routine we’ve fallen back into like clockwork, with the calves ready for the gates to be opened into the trough area as soon as they hear the rattle of a bag.

The first bale of 2024 silage looks to be quite good quality, and hopefully we won’t have to keep them in for longer than a fortnight, as getting our second cut baled will be down to lady luck at this stage, though with the weather this year, I feel about as lucky as a bald person who’s just won a free haircut.

We have left the smaller group with younger calves out in the driest field, though these have also started to get supplementary fodder in an attempt to stop them walking too much, though all are thriving despite the conditions.

We hope to get everything weighed in the next week for the SCEP scheme, and on one of the wet evenings, of which I could take my pick, I completed the online training course.

A few teething problems had to be ironed out before I could do so however, as it took exception to my laptop and “computer said no”, so an old laptop had to be dug out of a cupboard to work off. I’ve complained before about so much ‘stuff’ being kept in sheds around here, but perhaps there is a case to be made for keeping things that may be useful one day after all.

Our first foray into commercial showing went as well as we expected, knowing she was going to be very small in comparison to others in the ring with her, but the experience should stand her in good stead down the line. Being only two months old, she attracted a fair bit of attention, especially from younger participants in the show and she behaved very well for the most part. Although I now appreciate Noah’s stockmanship on getting animals to walk into an ark two by two, with no prior training or coaxing with a bucket of nuts.

Dwarfed by a top-quality Shorthorn bull while we waited for her class to be called, she decided that lying down and pretending to be invisible was her best defence, only for the bull to take one glance down and lie beside her.

I didn’t get much time to watch the cattle judging, but from the brief wander I took through the cattle section, all exhibitors should be proud of themselves for the standard which was on display, despite the challenging year.