River Culm in flood April 2012
A month is a long time when looking at English weather! Last month we were worrying about drought problems then the heavens opened… over 100mls rain fell in East Devon during the last week of April causing widespread flooding to many areas. We had to bring most cows and spring born calves back in as the river meadows were flooded and other fields were well and truly waterlogged. At the beginning of May we had more stock indoors than we had throughout the winter months. 2 weeks later they were able to go out once again – although not initially happy with the ‘dirty’ grass.
We are now waiting to do our first cut of silage – plenty of grass everywhere at the moment and this would be about a week earlier than usual.
Patrick Greed with Kaprico Donato at the Devon County Show May 2012
We have just returned from the Devon County Show where south west Limousin breeders took out a strong selection of cattle. Our stock bull KAPRICO DONATO won the senior bull class, (male breed champion) and was reserve breed champion to Quaish Evie – bred/shown by Nick Hill, Somerset.
Young Limousin from the Killerton Herd preparing for the Devon Show May 2012
All the young stock behaved well which is always a relief when taking them out for the first time.
Following their visit to the Devon County Show, a small team of young limousin stock-judgers from Northern Ireland came to visit us at the farm.
Northern Ireland young stock judgers spend a day with the Killerton Herd
Northern Ireland Young Stock Judgers visit the Killerton Herd
Patrick Greed plays host to the Northern Ireland Young Stock Judgers
Young Northern Ireland Stock Judgers checking the feed of the Killerton Herd
Maize is up and recovering from the cold/wet spell and all the cereal fields are looking strong. Sadly it looks like we will have to start irrigating potatoes next week – despite the heavy rainfall 3 weeks ago the sand ground has dried out fast and we want to maintain the quality of the crop.