Mrs Down's Diary

THE wistful longing for his cows should soon be over for our Limousin bull. He has put on loads of weight since he has been in with the bulls on their ad-lib barley feed. He spent the first part of the winter with the cows in the main foldyard, but once they started calving and then coming back into season, we took him away.

A small mismanagement last year i.e. leaving him in with the cows after they started calving, meant we calved a lot earlier than intended this year. Next year, the calving should be later so that we will not have such a crowded foldyard with lots of young calves at foot as we have at the moment.

The bull yard is next to the big foldyard. They are separated by a massive steel gate which has about a foot square hole in it where the closing bolt is, to enable us to open the gate from either side.

Mr. Bull spends huge amounts of his time with his head on one side peering mournfully through this gap. It is touching and tender to see him from the bull yard's side, but rather creepy to glimpse this huge , leering eye form the cow's side. Must scare them to death. Does me.

But tomorrow is his big day.

For full story see West Sussex Gazette April 22