The last few days of 2024 were a bit of an occasion. Three TB reactors were collected, having had a breakdown after three clear years.

When the vet informed us of the failure at the end of the test, I was quite philosophical, but an hour later, the reality hit me of the need for extra calf accommodation and loss of income.

Since we are a closed herd, I can’t buy in, so I just have to wait for the heifers to calve into the system.

This is why, whenever I am in political circles, I keep insisting that closed herds should have increased compensation, although I call it compulsory purchase, or flying herds should get less.

On the last day of the year, we had to euthanise a much-respected cow, after a course of expensive treatment. The vet said pleurisy, we thought she ingested wire.

Brighter

Fortunately, 2025 looks, dare I say it, a lot brighter, as we’ve received delivery of a new Kubota tractor, the MX series.

After many years of buying a new Landini every three years, I decided to change brands. I hadn’t realised, but the initially-purchased Kubota was a much lower spec then we were used to, which crated some problems.

To be fair to Kubota, we exchanged for the MX 6111 utility series, which is a very exciting model for someone who started life on a Fergie T20.

The Kubota is so good it will be a difficult choice in three years’ time as to whether we stick with Kubota or go back to Landini.

Even Steve, who has done the yard work for the last 30 years and is the original prophet of doom and gloom and finds fault with everything, has so far not commented, though he has admitted behind my back that it is quite a good tractor and he quite likes it. Praise indeed.

Broadband

The other problem at the year end was broadband. The other end of the table had the opportunity to place an article on the inheritance tax changes in the budget in a national newspaper.

Unfortunately, the whole village lost broadband for 24 hours. When it was restored, we were still out. Inspection showed some of our overhead landlines were on the floor.

Strangely enough, the other end of the table had been asked to write about rural broadband. I have yet to persuade her.

We were into day three before connection was restored and lost the opportunity to publish.

Unfortunately, at this point, we were also persuaded to change the router and disconnect the old faithful landline phones and replace them with two small mobile type handheld phones.

We were persuaded to do this because everything has to change to digital by January 2027. The worst thing about the new phones, apart from being difficult to get used to, is very low clarity - a difficult problem for two hard-of-hearing OAPs.

We always end by saying: “I’ll ring you back on the mobile.” I have heard of others with similar problems.

Is this a plot to push us all into mobile phones? What will happen when landlines go, will we lose a measure of independence?

The other problem is that the router doesn’t reach as far as the original, so I can no longer go into the front room and watch the racing on television, picking up the runners and results on my iPad.