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Autumn
Our faming calendar kicks off with calving, from August to October. The majority of the cows calve outside with the older, slightly needier cows get extra pampering in straw yards. After calving, the cows paddock graze into the autumn, being given a fresh break of pasture after every milking. Grassland management is a real art with the aim of always offering cows grass at the optimum stage of growth that strikes the balance in palatability and quantity so they want to eat it down like a lawn-mower would. As grass growth slows and the weather and ground conditions deteriorate, we start bringing the cows inside where they can escape the weather and we can better meet their nutritional demands as they head up towards their production peaks!
Winter
The winter housing is luxurious, comfortable, deep bed sand, free-stall accommodation with lot of light and well ventilated, communal space to feed, drink, socialise and chill out. Welfare is so, so important to us cow lovers and we keep a close eye both in person and with the aid of cameras, around the clock. Twice a day, the cows are milked through our state-of-the-art rotary milking parlour. We installed this last year and the cows love it! Milking is quick and easy and technology on the parlour optimises cow health and productivity. Game changer!
This picture is of mother and daughter just chillin….
Spring
The herd is turned back out to grass as weather and ground conditions allow from mid-February. This is always a special time of year, the cows love going out when the sun’s shining! We have lots of mouths to feed so turnout is staged to match increasing grass growth rates as the soils warm up. Grass is measured every week to allow us to track growth rates and forecast peaks and troughs in the grass budget. It’s a real art to manage grass well, so we constantly alter our management in order that cows are always offered the lushest pastures. Surplus grass is conserved as silage to be fed in the winter and when we’re short in the summer if it dries up. Good soil health and healthy environmental ecosystems are critical to growing lots of grass, the more earth worms, the better! Grassland farming, goes hand in hand with environmental sustainability. As custodians of the land, we feel a real responsibility to looking after our corner of Devon.
Summer
From July the cows begin their holidays when they have a 6-8 week dry period to rest and recuperate before their due dates. During this time, the next generation of heifers (young cows), pregnant with their first calf, join the dry cows. And so the cycle begins again. Never a dull moment!