Over my half term I spent a week working on a farm in Devon, it was very hard, tiring work and from the first day of my week on the farm I was thrown straight in at the deep end. Straight after arriving there I was taken down a road to a gate into a field of cows. Tim, the farmer, told me that he was going to into the field and round then up and told me to stand in the middle of the road on one side of the fence to make sure they all went the right way. “And make sure that none of them get past you.” When I asked how I alone, in the middle of a road, was supposed to stop a herd of cows from running straight past me, he replied: “Ask them nicely!” Not exactly the kind of advice I was hoping for.
Most of the animals on the farm were, in fact sheep, not cows, any by the end of the week I became much more competent at shepherding sheep up country lanes, around fields and in and out of pens. I found that the farm dogs were invaluable in this and it was amazing that after only a couple of days they took commands from me as well as any of the men who had been working on the farm with the dogs for years.
Jim and Andrea (the farmer and his wife) who I was staying with, had a 5 month old baby boy, Thomas. When the work on the farm was done for the day I took up the role of baby-sitter to him while Andrea cooked dinner and did other jobs around the house. Luckily, he seemed to like me so we didn’t have any problems!
Back at the farm there were babies of a different kind. None of the ewes were due to start lambing until mid-March but overnight two gave birth, each to twins. The puzzling part was that the lambs were not premature and Jim was very confused as how one of the rams could have got to them early! Unfortunately both of the ewes were quite old and neither were producing enough milk so it was my job to feed all four of the lambs three times a day. Jim explained that while bottle feeding can be easier, he tube feeds any lambs in similar circumstances because it is quicker and – unlike with a bottle - they do not get used to it so they will still go to their mothers. Tube feeding pigeons at Wildlife Aid was a good preparation for it as it was basically the same concept – but at Wildlife Aid there are two of you for one pigeon but it was just me, and lambs are much bigger and stronger than pigeons!
I also spent a lot of time looking for the lambs as one in particular became a very good escape artist and ended up under hay bales, stuck in between them and at one point in other pen after squeezing through the fence. Other highlights from the week included; feeding sheep from the back of a quadbike, learning about aging sheep and trimming their feet and drinking green water [probably shouldn't be counted as a highlight but an 'experience'!]. The week despite putting me off wanting to be a farmer, only added to how much I want to become a vet and made me consider more becoming a rural one. It was very tiring a hard work but also very rewarding, interesting and enjoyable.
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Thursday 9 October 2008 at 9:56 pm
[...] dairy farm in Somerset. I’d never done any work with cows before (except briefly when I spent a week on a sheep farm) so it was a new experience for me. What I didn’t realise until arriving there the night [...]