TB hits Julian Ellis’s farm

This month we have gone down with TB. This was not a surprise considering the amount of it around, but it was a surprise to be waiting nearly four weeks for the reactors to be taken.

Another surprise was the number of cows that have tested positive for Johne’s after taking advantage of the healthy herd programme. We have now tagged these cows so that we may be able to manage it, and we are only feeding the dairy calves powdered milk.

Fortunately calves seem to be going on well and we have seen very little pneumonia compared with the last couple of years. Hopefully, the Guernseys will welcome a foreigner to the camp and not pick on the Jersey calf when it arrives that I bought for Sam’s birthday.

The cold dry weather gave us a chance to mend up some more hedges and also call in the local contractor to empty one of the slurry pits, a job which they did a lot quicker and efficiently than we could pay men to do it with our own machinery. Which is a shame as we have had men knocking on our door looking for work this month

Cabbage orders have been good, but now the weather has turned a bit colder, the pigeons have appeared, as well as a very tame fox that is very confident around the yard. Dad has pointed the gun in its direction, but I think he would have had the same result if it was the gas birdscarer that he was pointing.