We are on the verge of possibly making a major decision: weare thinking of no longer keeping cows!!! This is our fourth winter with them and getting them back in 2016 was the realization of a 30-year dream for Jack - and we absolutely love them to bits...
So why? Well, in no particular order: winter workload in one reason (4-6 months of manual mucking out); money is a second (they cost anything from £60-£80 a week to keep in the winter plus there are semen, AI, feet trimming, de-horning, occasional vet costs etc and we don't make these costs back on meat/live sales - not helped by our poor marketing skills); also our meat eating habits are changing and we find we are eating less and less; and finally, in over three years we have still not found the time to set up a milking regime with them. There is also, the fact the TB testing is a little bit stressful!!
Set against all that is the fact we enjoy them hugely, we love calving, we love seeing them grazing and they are incredibly easy to handle and have had virtually no health issues; AND they are fabulously useful as part of our cross grazing system. Without them we will (potentially) also have a lot of grass.
The other very important factor is that after being without one since we moved here in 2016, we are investing in a polytunnel again and so want the time to really start growing a lot more fruit and veg.
David is 67, Jack is 55 - we aren't getting any younger and there is still the small matter of keeping goats, sheep, alpacas, rhea, ducks, geese, chickens and turkeys - and occasional pigs!!! Not to mention the dogs and cats.... the website business... running courses, writing...
Will not having cows impact on the courses - hopefully not??
Will we get to the spring/summer and conveniently forget how hard the winters are, possibly?
And looking back over this blog and choosing these photos has really helped - NOT
It's really really hard!!!