Springtime begins properly in March and it’s as if the whole countryside starts to wake up. Muck spreading can start properly. Muck will mainly be applied to seeded fields or where silage will be cut for next year’s winter feed.

The cow’s milk yield can start to fall as the last of the winter fodder is consumed. If the weather is good enough some farmers will let their cows out on to fresh pasture in the daytime. Cows can get very excited when this happens. They run and buck and are generally happy to be outdoors. However, if the weather is still cold a farmer will like to have his cows back inside overnight.

April can be a busy month. Our farmers will start to sow their spring food crops such as peas, barley plus clover and grass mixtures. These extra feeds help keep a balanced intake throughout the winter. The silage fields are also prepared by harrowing, which will get rid of any weeds or old grass they are then rolled. The rolling ensures a good strong root to the grass which will be extra juicy when it’s cut for silage.

All cows are usually ‘turned out’ for night and days in April. The cow’s milk yield usually goes up by around 10% when they are fully ‘out to grass’. However, some silage is still fed when the cows come into be milked. This helps settle the cow’s stomach which can react badly when making the switch from grass to silage so quickly..

Some good April showers will mean some silage will be cut in May. Most farmers like to get two cuts of silage from his silage fields over the summer months. Usually the earlier you can cut your silage the better. This means your second cut can hopefully be bigger and you will have plenty to feed to your cows through the winter. It can be a real skill to know when to cut and when not to. However the weather can sometimes have the last say on silage making. The last of the spring crops can be planted in May, which will include fodder beet and stubble turnips.

Throughout the year the cows are milked twice a day. As their milk dries up the farmer will split them into two groups, high and low yielders. This makes it easier for the farmer to manage milk quality and feed. When a cow comes into season its often called ‘bulling’. When this occurs the farmer will ‘serve’ the cow with semen from a bull of his preferred choice and the lactation cycle will start again.

The hot and settled weather of June allows silage and hay making to continue. Some silage fields are ‘treated’ to a dressing of slurry. If grazing is short for high yielders our farmers sometimes allow the low yielders to graze the silage after math of a second cut field.

Most cows enjoy June and it’s wonderful grazing conditions and settled diet. The high yielding group of cows will still be fed extra buffer foods in order to maintain the quantity and quality of their milk.

As the month goes on it usually starts to get hotter. For the cows this can mean flies that bite them which can cause the cows discomfort and sometimes effect their willingness to eat.

In July there’s great activity with many of the cereal crops being harvested. These will be mixed to make a feedable porridge and then put into storage for the months ahead. The straw from this harvest will be baled and stored. Straw is usually used for bedding but can sometimes be used as a poor quality fodder for dry cows.

The cows will usually continue to give good levels of milk in July. However, this can sometimes be affected by the hot weather resulting in ‘heat stress’. This is another factor which can result in a cow being unwilling to eat in the summer months.

Plentiful grass can mean our farmers could reduce any valuable supplementary buffer feeds they maybe feeding. It is always a balancing act with feed as there maybe a time later in the year when some extra buffer feed will be very useful.

The hot August weather usually sees the continuation of baling of straw and some hay. Re-seeding can take place and any wet weather will give excellent germination conditions for any crops planted. However, recent wet summers have spoiled the traditional haymaking season as ground that is too damp can often cause planted seed to rot before germination can take place. The wet summers we have experienced in recent years have tested our farmers skill and expertise to the limit.

Traditionally August remains the last good grazing month for our cows. In usual hot summers the grass in the grazing fields gradually reduces in vigour, height and quantity. Our farmers will think about feeding the first of the autumn buffer feeds. These are usually introduced whilst the cows are waiting to be milked or whilst milking is taking place.

Some our farmers may attempt a third cut of silage in September. The quality of this final cut is not usually the best of the cuts and will usually be fed to young stock and milking cows next year. More sowing and planting continues into September with new grasses and clover being planted before it gets too cold.

Muck and slurry spreading will help recently planted crops to germinate. All slurry/muck will have to be cleaned out of the slurry pit in order to makes space for what the cows will produce this next winter. Farmers will want to do this spreading before the ground gets too soft and they risk damaging their fields.

The cows will continue to be kept out in the fields for as long as the weather will allow. Only cows with young calves will bed down inside overnight.

In October the last of the winter cereals is planted and fertilised. All our cereals, grass and clovers have to be organic in order to fit in with the organic criteria we hold.

As the weather worsens the ground and grazing deteriorates and most of our farmers would like to have their herds indoors from now on. This involves them sleeping in a cubical house which would usually have single stalls for the cows to bed down in. The straw harvested earlier in the year now makes excellent bedding. They can be fed their dry buffer supplements whilst in the cubical house. They would also have an outdoor yard area in which will sit a feeder containing silage that was cut in the spring.

November can start to bring the first of the really cold and wet weather. However, our farmers should still manage to plant the last of their cereal crops. They will also start to harvest such root crops as fodder beet this month. The fodder beet will then be fed to the cows along with silage and other supplements throughout the winter months. This diet will produce good milk and energy levels.

Our farmers find the cows general milk yield will level off in November due to them being housed. However, the milk quality will remain high mainly due to the fact their diet is carefully planned. Thanks to hi-tech equipment, the farmers can constantly check the milk quality. They will look for energy and protein levels plus butterfat content. All this information is useful to the farmers when they are selling their milk.

December is usually a quiet month on the land with fields left to rest over the winter period.

Some farmers like to graze sheep on grass pasture to tidy up the fields of old tough grass. This encourages new strong roots and shoots to develop and rise in the spring.

With all their cows in their winter quarters our farmers are still kept busier than ever. Regular fresh straw bedding is put down in the cubical houses and the yard is scraped clean of muck twice a day.

When cows are kept indoors for long periods farmers have to be extra vigilant when looking for possible health problems. A common illness at this time of year is mastitis, which is a painful blockage/swelling of the cows udders. Also without fresh grass to clean their hooves every day some cows can develop foot problems.

Winter still has a firm grip on our farms in January. The frost, snow and general low temperatures keep the grass short. Some of our farmers like to graze sheep on their gazing pasture at this time of year. The sheep’s feet ‘tiler’ the ground and they love to pick out any old grass allowing fresh strong new grass to grow in the springtime.

The cows are still kept in the cow sheds being fed on silage and forage supplements. Any muck they produce is scraped up daily and pushed into a slurry pit. This will be emptied and spread on the land as ‘muck spreading’ fertiliser. You’ll know that smell from driving in the country at this time of year!

If the weather is very cold and the ground is hard, some muck spreading can start in February. However, recent warmer winters have speeded up early grass growth. Amazingly the cows can sense this and can sometimes get very restless. Having been indoors for a few months - can you blame them? Whole crops and fodder beet are fed to them to keep energy levels up.

Our farmers also have to be extra careful to make sure that where the cows live in winter is kept clean. The concrete ground of a yard or cow house can get wet and slippery. If a cow should slip and break a leg, sadly it would have to be ‘put to sleep.’