It’s great news: we have passed our annual TB test! Every year, our whole herd is tested for bovine Tuberculosis and it is this test that our TB-free status depends upon. If we lose our TB-free status, we must stop selling raw milk immediately, thus putting our business into a huge loss-making position overnight – so as you can imagine, this is always a stressful time of the year, and always a huge relief to make it through without any reactors!
The test is a 100-year-old immune response test. It involves each cow and young stock being jabbed with a tiny bit of TB, and the thickness of their skin measured at the injection site on their neck. That happened on Tuesday 4th February. Three days later, all the animals had their skin measured again. If there is a significant increase in the skin's thickness, the animal has reacted to the immune response test and is considered to have TB. If this happens, even to just one animal (we tested 172 animals), our farm loses its official TB-free status. Fortunately, we had no reactors, which means we can continue supplying our customers with raw milk for another 12 months!
It's a lovely sunny day as we write this. It feels as though spring is just around the corner. If this period of dry weather continues, we will be able to start spreading a light coat of some composted Farm Yard Muck (FYM) out onto our grassland fields so that this can fertilise the grass, providing it with a stable form of nitrogen that isn't soluble and doesn't leach away. This will really get the grass growing this spring. The cows will have a lovely bite of grass when we turn the cows out. Speaking of which...
Turn Out Day this year will be on Easter Bank Holiday Monday, the 21st April. Tickets are available here. £12 per adult, and children under 16 have free entry. Sadly we had to cancel the event last year as it was too wet. Easter falls a bit later this year, so hopefully it will be an amazing day out! Come and see our cows running out onto grass again after having been indoors for the winter. You'll see how much grass and being outdoors means to them! There’ll also be a BBQ and refreshments, tractor-and-trailer rides, and our own market stall so you can bring some of our raw milk and other products back home. This is always a great day out for the whole family – we look forward to seeing you there!
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