Looking from Ash Hill

The foot and mouth restrictions were lifted in October 2007 and thirteen store cattle were duly sold. I had hoped for a slightly better price but the farmers that buy them for fattening are having to pay £150 per ton for cereals against £90 last year. Therefore this factor is reflected in the price they are prepared to pay.

Leonard Tustian

Livestock at Ash Hill

The rams were put out on 20th October with the lambing to start in mid March. Twenty two replacements were bought as quite a few had died during the year.

Being fed in the field . .

The mould boards of a well-used plough.

The land for winter wheat and oats was ploughed during October. This is a job I love and take great pride in. To see a field neatly ploughed with well set up ridges and nicely finished furrows is like looking at a beautiful painting.

I have often been told that I ought to enter a ploughing match which would be quite interesting. My plough is 58yrs old and very worn, the rear of the mould boards have worn away so badly that they are as sharp as a razor. The corn was planted in early November. The varieties used were Gerald for the oats and Hereward for the wheat, which is a breadmaking variety.

Sally, the farmer's favourite. . . .

The Hereford bull which I hire returned to his owner in December. He had been on holiday here with his lovely girls since June. Wow! What a holiday! Calving should start in April.

Twenty four lambs were sold at Stratford market just before Christmas for a dismal price of 74p per kilo. The restrictions on the export market imposed during the foot and mouth epidemic had not been lifted which caused a glut on the home market.

and her daughter. . .

The weather has been very wet, raining nearly every day and the daily chore of feeding cattle using the tractor has made everywhere a mudpool. I am using 40 bales of hay and straw every day.

The constant struggle of wading through the mud with these is getting on my goat and I am longing for the Spring to come.

My heart was gladdened in the New Year with the sale of fifteen store cattle at Thame market. When my haulier rang me in the evening to tell me the prices I was over the moon as they made far more than I was expecting.

The following week 34 lambs went to Stratford Market. The export restrictions had by then been lifted which had a dramatic effect on prices. They made an astonishing 110p per kilo. With hindsight it would have paid me to have kept the first batch and sold at the improved prices.

An early lamb that threatened to be a late lamb.

Three early lambs have been born - twins and a single. The mother of the twins had a very large low slung udder. The lambs couldn't seem to get the knack of getting down low enough to feed from her so I had to feed them with a bottle. After a while they went downhill, wouldn't feed and lay there motionless. I brought them in by the fire and fed them by stomach tube but with no response. They looked as though they would surely die. I looked through my Veterinary book for Sheep Farmers and decided to give them about 5mls of liquid paraffin each. This had a dramatic effect and really got things going although it made rather a mess everywhere. They soon learnt to suck their mother's large udder.

They are now growing really fast and it is such a joy to lean over the door of the pen and watch them hurtling to and fro and leaping into the air. It feels as if Spring is on its way.