We have started calving and though this cow needed a bit of help
it is not something that we have to do very often. The calf was big & strong and unfortunately a bull calf. We really want heifers and although we had used sexed semen it is only about 80% accurate so the occasional bull calf is inevitable. As a Friesian bull we will rear him for beef. Calving will go on now for the next couple of months and hopefully we will gat a good number of heifer calves who will be reared as followers into the dairy herd. With calving now underway, the milk in the tank will increase which will be good if only because it means I will be able to reach the milk to fill the jugs for the house. Just lately because most of the cows are dry prior to calving we have had very little milk at the bottom of what is a very deep tank and my arms are just not long enough to reach it! 
The puppies are doing well...this one has discovered the comfort of carpet in Molly the sheepdog's kennel, though she was not very impressed at having a lodger! They are now all sold and are all going to good homes. Most of the new owners have come down to see the puppies and I always feel that if people are prepared to travel several hundred miles then they are serious about the puppy and will provide excellent loving homes. We have had people come from as far away Derbyshire & Milton Keynes & some puppies are going up to Sheffield & to the Midlands. Others in the litter are staying in Wales though scattered from north to south. They are now just over 5 weeks old and very sweet & naughty. They spend most of their time outside now on the grass of our yard in the lovely sunshine that has now come with the school holidays being over.
Most of the summer our holiday makers have had to resign themselves to damp days on the beach & now that the schools are due to go back the sun comes out!
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