Click here to read about the slaughter of horned cows.

It is also reported here in the Daily Mail

We are not in a position to comment much except we are very shocked.

However, I should point out many farmers work with horned cattle safely on a daily basis and shooting loose cattle is very, very dangerous as the likelihood of stray bullets and an unclean kill requiring several shots and much suffering from the animal as well as the onlookers is incredibly high.

Only once or twice in a long lifetime of livestock farming have I seen a loose animal shot out of total necessity because it was maddened and very distressed.  And this was only after we had tried sedation and the vet first. It is totally different from destroying an animal which is contained and I feel it is a very irresponsible action to take.

One wonders what the risk assessment for this terrible action was?

Whatever the real problem was, and they may be more to it, we are all completely outraged and this was not the way to solve it.

longer days,

birds pairing off,

geese on the move – flying overhead in their V formations,

grass, weeds and clover growing in the pastures,

sap rising in the hedges and some are almost budding.

What a contrast to last year, and far too early as it is only mid-Feb and winter could easily return. Here’s hoping for a long mild spring,  which could lead to a good strong crop of young calves and lambs and even potentially a good harvest.

They have enlisted the help of one of the UK’s funniest comedians, Bill Bailey,  and last summer they made a video to help get their message across. Enjoy.

We love the shorts and wellies!

Lunch on Monday was really great. Fantastic service and delicious food. It was a world away from so many roadside eateries, and the countless other mediocre meals served up daily in restaurants and pubs all over the country to the unsuspecting British public and tourists. I had the Coq au Vin with tasty and fluffy mashed potatoes and excellent peas.

A freshly cooked main course is served up for under a tennner and if all meals out were like this when we went out to eat life would be so very much better. As it is we frequently struggle to eat as well out as we do at home. Pubs and restaurants are rarely visited more than once, sometimes only twice.

Be assured Little Chef @ Popham, we will be back and we urge anyone who is passing westwards down the M3 and onto the A303 to stop for a meal. If you are keen to have a traditional LC fry up then you still can but I urge you to try a real meal from the menu. Next time I shall to try the signature dish. We did not try a pudding as we knew we’d be out again for a meal in the evening, but hope to next time.

The family will tell you what a very bad customer I can be when out for a meal but it is only because the food and service is often so lacking. The last previously good place we went to delivered a human hair under my salad… As I finished the salad I found the hair.. and no  I did not have pudding after that, you can imagine I did not feel like it.

Keep up the good work Popham LC and grateful thanks to Heston Blumenthal and Channel 4!

Daring to be very different

Thanks for reading and following my blog. There will be more updates soon.

come in to my parlour said the spider to the fly

We have asked the council for a stock of  grit and said we’d do the worst areas near to us, will see what  happens.

The water bowser is very busy as many of the troughs are now empty and not re-filling owing to the continues freeze. We also have to keep heaters on overnight to stop the bowser freezing up in the workshop.

Forecasters predict a slight thaw tomorrow, before returning to colder temperatures. We will see.

Firstly, it appears that some people have complained to the media that they have NO SNOW! Well they should get real. For those who have to get out and work in all weathers outside, or who have a vital job to do and need to commute only to find that the roads are impassable, would not agree.

Secondly, this type of bad weather and freezing temperatures is, and always will be, dangerous and can kill.

We are not badly off here. It is not fun and it is still bitterly cold, and we have some snow, but I am pleased to report that we are not really struggling. Certainly it is a grind everyday to water everything outside, and inside, as the pipes inside some of the buildings are freezing up now.

Jethro is having to change his plans, and house more animals than originally thought this winter. The early cold snap has caught everyone out – it is not unreasonable to expect to keep cattle out in the fields until Christmas or just after.

The hardest part Jethro said over breakfast is that this is only the 2nd December and it was almost mid-April before temperatures rose this year and Spring arrived.  Memories of last winter’s struggles to feed and keep the livestock in good condition are too fresh in our minds and it saps the spirits somewhat to think that we may have many more months of cold weather.

Last night watching Edwardian Farm , as Jethro snored loudly on the sofa, there was something that Ruth said about  Christmas being a low-key event for rural dwellers.  She explained that in Edwardian times the big Christmases were mainly celebrated by the urban middle classes who had both time and money to spare. Country folk, she said, had neither the time  nor the money.

This to a certain extent still rings true in that all farmers who keep livestock have to feed and water and check their animals whatever day of the year it is. There may be a rota to share the workload over the holiday period, but if the weather is as bad as it was last Christmas then it becomes a two-man job anyway.

My experiences of farming Christmases have been mixed, some excellent and some we’d rather forget. And unsurprisingly it has usually been the weather that has made all the difference.  In the run up to the 25th December a lot of extra work and effort goes in to moving feedstuffs and bedding around to reduce the number of hours worked on two-day holiday.

On the day we have always had delicious fresh food to eat, a warm cosy fire to sit by, and of course a Christmas tree with a pile of presents to open. The difference between these good and the not so good days has been time. Enough time to enjoy the lunch, enough time to sit and enjoy the family opening presents, and any time at all to just have a rest.

Some Christmas Days have been rushed, the day itself or even the Christmas dinner has been interrupted by phone calls reporting trouble, or the farmer is just so exhausted from the extra work from the bad weather that he has his Christmas dinner late and then sleeps through everything else!

As you can guess I am not wishing for a white Christmas this year, we’ve all had quite enough of the white stuff already!

ENJOY!