POSITIVE EARLY SIGNALS FROM THE COWS WITH REGARDS STRIP GRAZING

While checking the dry cows on the hill this afternoon and also making use of my time up there, in that remote cloudy realm, to find the perfect brambled burrow to serve as my hermitage of failure and shame (see yesterday's harrowing post), I realised that I was perfectly placed to spy on the milking herd.


I had seen some confused/forlorn/agitated faces at the gate to Rick field when down on the farm earlier in the day, and feared the worst: that the herd had rejected my attempts at sustainable dairying by strip grazing them through a lovely new herbal ley. They clearly wanted the Quavers and Mars bars of set stocking, instead of the herby pesto and side salad of mixed leaves that I had prepared for them!

HOWEVER!

From my lofty perch I had a good view of what they were actually doing (see photo, centre).

Thoses faces at the gate were just three or four idiot heifers feeling tragic about their herby lot, while the rest of the herd were spread about their little block of luscious grazing, stuffing themselves full of biodiversity! Ha!

I descended the hill in full human form and rejoined polite Somerset farming society. My hovel of thorns and toad companions shelved; for the time being.