Bawsey St James Sparkle.

Went out with the wife this morning to check the cattle and one of my older girls had feet coming out of the rear end. With calving cattle out, when i find one which is obviously getting on with it but hasnt managed it yet i tend to have a cup of tea then get stuck in!! So Cow Catcher on and get her restrained

You Can just see the feet appearing, I lubed up and  had a feel. The calf was coming out the right way and it was one of those times when nature probably would have taken care of it but a quick tug and sparkle is born!!

 

A cracking start to the day and 5 mins later she was up and suckling, awsome!

Its time to get legal.....

Did you know that if you past your driving test after 1 Jan 1997 then you have to do a seperate test to tow a trailer over 750kg, basicly anything of note.

So Gavin and I are off today to take our driving test, learner plates attached and driving at ten to two!!! In the immortal words of Danny Glover "I'm getting to old for this shit" (If that doesnt age me nothing will!)

UPDATE!!!

All done!! Gavin and I have both passed and as a highly competitive chap i was very pleased to get fewer minor faults than Gavin.

Cow catcher,

Hello blogging world, I have finally got all the DEFRA paperwork done and I am now able to share a bit more about the farm.

One of the wise old sayings that my Dad uses is "the only difference between man and boys, is simply the size and cost of there toys." So very true and one of the very useful toys we reacently invested in was a cow catcher. 

As you can see its is mounted on the fore end loader of the tractor. The front can open using hydraulics but I have found the most effective way is to bring it down over the top of the beast. Last night Dad and I checked the cattle and one had weepy eyes, so she needs catching and eye drops. Before this machine I would have had to build a pen and try and seperate her out from the other 65 and I would have definately needed several people helping. All in all it would probably have taken a good 2hrs.

So here she is all caught up in the pen and secure. I drove onto the field and had her caught in 3 mins. The pen contains a simple crush which swings round.

Ropes then hold her in

and I force her head through a yoke. Then its easy to get the halter on.

I can now administer the eye drops safely and easily.

All in all the job took 10 minutes and she just walks out the front door!!

This bit of kit has got me out some serious muddles and saved alot of time. Its a bit of a luxury, but only as much as a loo seat I could live without it but it would be a pain in the arse.