..are always watching...

Look, a splendid new barn!

Shiny and complete with gutters (thank goodness) plus a new track so we can drive to it! Thanks to the Longmoor Labourers for their hard work track-building. The track has significantly reduced run-off from the fields already, and combined with the new barn will go a long way to boosting our catchment-sensitive farming credentials. Unfortunately, photographic evidence of Helen's birthday treat...shovelling rubble, was lost when Dad buried his brand new digital camera.

With the building complete, its back to other farm work. The priority right now is make sure the new grassland is in tip-top condition for a bumper hay and silage year. We're on the lookout for the mugwort peril, a plant that has plagued one of our fields for years, but concerted digging up and cutting seems, at the moment, to have reduced its proliferation. In its place, something better. Planting the grassland has turned up a lot of burnt flint - further evidence early Humph walked this land!

Next winter, the new barn will simplify our system, and if implemented well, should cut the time spent feeding, littering and yard clearing, allowing us to make progress and fight perils elsewhere; good for the cows, good for us farmers!

And on that note, this week, I attended a Farm Safety and Health Awareness morning. Let's be honest, I wasn't too thrilled at the thought of HSE presentations, and it's never good to embody 'health' at these events by turning up in the throes of alien death flu. However, it was presented by farmers and I would highly recommend it as a refresher in how to mitigate risks and keep yourself and your workforce safe. Anyone who has attempted to find H&S information, particularly on the HSE website, will know it seems somewhat of a dark art. This morning was informative, and we received H&S advice that I would not have considered and/or would have no idea where to look for otherwise. Farmers, if you haven't attended already, get yourself on a course!

No excuses: http://www.hse.gov.uk/agriculture/shads.htm