Farm Diary

Our water supply to one shed and the worker's living accommodation is not in the ground due to the site-works, this leaves us vulnerable to heavy frost, and the wrath of a gang of big Yorkshire lads.

Due to the building project, we have temporary slurry arrangements which would grind to a halt if the temperature fell much below the minus 6celsius we experienced two weeks ago.

Pumping to the separators through a 'lay-flat' pipe means that if it freezes hard, we need to persuade the slurry to move along the pipe by walking on it! The pump is not man enough to move frosty, semi-solid slurry, and a fortnight ago we had a gang of us walking along the pipe in a row, using our feet, 'squeezing' slurry out the other end like toothpaste!

The cowsheds are of course centrally heated by the cows who do not begin use any energy to keep warm until it is minus 2celsius due to the fact that they produce excess heat. Once it gets colder than that we do notice that they eat more, with no more milk to show for it.

I have just put thick plastic in the bottom of our feed-troughs, which has transformed the job of cleaning out any waste. A plastic shovel glides easily up the trough now, not that there is much left as the cows enjoy a nice clean smooth surface to lick clean!

For full feature see West Sussex Gazette December 24