A herd of South Devon cattle again graces the fields opposite home. For 30 years the land, with distinctive beech trees on a hedge and an old, freestanding oak, was used mainly for a succession of cereal crops, with annual and ever dearer costs of ploughing, sowing, spraying to control weeds and moulds, and harvesting by combine and straw baler. Marauding pigeons from nearby woods were shot and once there was a mysterious double corn circle that caused consternation and wonder.
Over the past few years the new tenant has resown the former arable fields with grasses that have thickened up with regular topping (cutting) and sheep grazing. This year, strong post-and-wire fences have been reinstated against the hedge-banks, and a cattle crush or pen has been installed for sorting the animals and for the obligatory TB tests.
In April the recently purchased heifers arrived, and then, from their winter quarters at the home farm, cows with spring-born calves were brought in batches in the tractor-drawn trailer. The new arrivals trotted excitedly around their unfamiliar surroundings, testing the boundaries and calling to the heifers over the hedge.
Soon they settled in; calves (including two black ones, adopted by cows whose own calves died soon after birth) skipped and played across the fresh pasture before returning to their mothers’ sides. They will stay here all summer and be weaned in October, then fattened on home-produced silage, grain and grass for another 12 months. Some of the finished meat will be sold in the farmer’s own butchery.
A handsome South Devon bull has now joined the heifers and a Limousin bull is in with the herd of cows and calves, so the cycle will continue. In the warmth of a June afternoon the cattle lie content in the sunshine that gilds their pale brown backs. Come evening, the lowering sun still lights up these level and north-facing fields, and there is more attention to eating. The animals spread out to graze, often in synchronisation, facing the same direction, looking particularly beautiful and in harmony with this traditional pastoral landscape.
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