We’ve just had more snow than we’ve had for years - now everything is slowly warming up.  There’s always the race to have enough grass for the cows to go out to graze in early February.  All the wildlife waits too for their food - we saw flocks of birds rising off a heavily fruited holly bush as we drew close.  The deer have lost their fear of people and are grazing the kale down ahead of the cows.  The rooting creatures, badgers and wild boar, struggled to nuzzle the turf up to get to the delicious wrigglies below and now are bolder.  Deer, boar and badgers besiege our silage pit, eating almost more than the cows.  The better weather takes the pressure off, not before we’ve got photos of the wildlife grazing amongst the cows.

CROPS  -  The crops start waking up after the cold weather.  You get frost lift, where the soil shifts with the frost and the roots are exposed.  All the plants are dormant, and the soil settles back, leaving a nice frost tilth, like the most skilful cultivation.  The frost suppressed the moulds and mildews, but they will return as it gets warmer and stays moist.

The grass has started growing where we’ve spread manure, and will be growing well by the end of the month.  People talk about frost kill of grass, mostly at the sort of temperatures we get, that is with grass that was both too long and mildewy – young leaves, actively growing are much more resilient to the frost, and grazing the pastures until Christmas means all the leaves were young.  The cows go out as soon as we’ve got one side of the milking parlour of fresh calved cows, usually early February, unless it’s horribly wet or snowy as last year.

COWS  -  The cows finish their month inside and start calving, at the peak, ten or more cows a day calving.  Cows calve more often at night, and we need to keep an eye out for difficult calvings.  Mostly it’s better if they calve on their own, and the outdoor life and good balance of minerals our cows get mean their wombs have good muscle tone and work well.  Every now and again we need to give help: twins will get tangled up, legs everywhere, and get stuck and someone needs to put their hands inside her to sort out who’s coming first.  We will have a ‘downer’ cow or two, usually because they run out  of calcium: then we have to give them a bottle of readily available calcium into their vein.  It’s extraordinary, one minute a cow will be flat out, eyes rolling, and five minutes later she’s standing, getting on with life.  Mostly, if we’ve done our job right getting them ready for calving, the calves pop out easily, and you find cow and calf happily together. 

Then comes the sad business of taking the calves from the cows, always a wrench, but very quickly, the cows are content in the herd and the calves are bonded in their little gangs.  The fresh calved cows take a passing interest in other new born calves; ‘auntie’ cows, usually those just about to calve themselves, can try and take the calf from a less experienced heifer.  Soon, though, they revert to being of the herd, not of their calf.

YOUNGSTOCK  -  The yearling heifers are in their last three months of growth before they go to the bull.  This year they are well grown.  They need to get enough frame on them so their pelvises are big enough that the calf slips out, not get stuck, and we need to grow enough of that frame now, before their calf starts taking too much from them.  So they will stay inside a little longer, until the living is easy.  The heifers all managed to get out on the lane as we were returning from my father’s memorial service  -  we were out in our glad rags rounding them up.

CHEESE  -  The milk changes character as the cows go out to grass and the herd becomes freshly calved.  We stop having to work so hard to get the balance of fat, protein and moisture that gives our creamy, complex, unfolding flavour with the long finish, and it comes more easily, less work in the vat and the cooler.  At the same time, the cows give more milk, so we make more cheese.  We’ve spent January getting the stores ready for the extra cheese, and they start filling up after the Christmas rush. 

RECIPE  -  Joyce Rook in the shop makes a lovely Quickes Traditional Mature cheddar quiche that she serves hot or cold.  Use your normal pastry for a 12 inch quiche dish (hers is 8 oz flour, 4oz Quickes Traditional Whey Butter, a splash of cold water, whizzed up in the food processor then left to chill for an hour).  Whisk 5 eggs up with a splash of milk, about ¼ pint.  Add a good handful of grated Quickes Traditional Mature Cheddar, a packet of bacon sliced and browned in butter, and some chopped raw onion.  Joyce says add whatever else you feel like, peppers, mushroom or broccoli.  Season.  Pour into the pastry shell, bake for 25 minutes at 180?c or until set.  Serve warm with salad potatoes and a winter salad or winter vegetables braised in a dab of Quickes Traditional Whey Butter and perry, cider or water to boil away by the time they are cooked.