The motorway has remained silent for most of the week. This has indicated that although we have had a mixture of clouds and sunshine, northerly breezes have been prevalent. However the week has remained dry, so I expect we shall soon be wishing for some warm showers.

Our winter barley is now well in ear, which means that the grain carrying stalks are showing above the leaves and overall our cereal crops are growing on well. Kevin has had to spray his turnips with a pesticide to kill an invasion of flea beetles. Flea beetles used to be known as turnip flies, as they jump like fleas when disturbed, but are in fact true beetles. They are difficult to spot in the soil and among vegetation being shiny metallic black in colour and only 2 -3 mm in long. The larvae feed on the roots, but it is the adults which can quickly defoliate and kill plants especially on hot, sunny days .

At the beginning of the week Kevin has continued mucking out the barns used to house the ewes during lambing. There is now very little evidence to indicate the intensity of work associated with lambing over 1,000 ewes, all now grazing fields with their offspring. However for most of the week Kevin has enlisted the help of several people and collies to gather ewes and lambs in order to give the lambs their second vaccination to protect them against a number of clostridial diseases. They were also given a wormer to rid them of Nematodirus battus. This worm does not affect adult sheep, but young grazing lambs are very susceptible especially when warm spring weather gives rise to mass hatching. Nemtodaris is a serious and nasty parasite, causing acute and severe diarrhoea, which will soon cause lambs to die. Overuse of anthelmintics has led to resistance, so Kevin uses an integrated approach to the land he farms as part of his vet flock health plan. Whilst the sheep were gathered they were treated with a fly repellent to prevent fly strike. Fly strike is caused by a parasitic blowfly, which lays its eggs on the soiled wool of sheep. Once the maggots have hatched they burrow through and get under the skin where they feed on the flesh. If not treated promptly the sheep will soon die from ammonia poisoning .

It is always better to round sheep up as little as possible so as to cause the sheep less stress, therefore Kevin always tries to carry out as many procedures as possible at any one time . It was time to record growth rates of all the eight-week old lambs so whilst vaccinating, worming and applying a fly repellent the weights of the eight- week old ewe lambs were recorded. This was done to help Kevin select replacement breeding stock. In the elite flock of 100 ewes all the ram and ewe lambs were weighed and recorded with Signet . This is a sheep breeder recording scheme to help breeders identify genetically superior rams and ewes.

A short time ago we found a buyer for our milking equipment , which is no longer required as we have sold our dairy herd. During the week the milking parlour was dismantled and moved to another farm where it will replace an old parlour. We have also sold our oldest tractor, which needed repair. After some discussion it was decided that selling it would be the best option.

Richard and Ian went to look at some weaned suckler beef cattle early in the week with a view to buy. This will depend on the result of a TB pre-movement test, which all bovines need before they can be moved to another farm. If the test is clear the cattle will have to be moved within the following 60 days, if not clear we will not be able to buy them.