AT the beginning of the week the weather started to feel a little more summery, until more than another inch of rain fell during Monday night, Tuesday and into Wednesday, but the week ended with some glorious warm sunshine.

Hopefully, after a slow start, the combine harvester will soon be gathering grain once more.

Here on Manor Farm the straw lying on the ground from the previous week was at last dry enough to be rowed up and baled into large rounds.

Richard also managed to finish harvesting one field of winter barley, which had been started the week before. It was a very slow job, as this crop was rather twisted with a number of flat patches.

The combine was having to travel about ten metres forward before having to reverse two metres to try and pick up all the tangled barley.

Before the rain started most of the straw in the field was baled, brought back to the buildings and stacked up ready for use during the winter.

After some negotiating Richard managed to sell the gathered barley to two buyers. Some of the grain was picked up by lorries, while Ian delivered the rest locally, so now the barn is empty, ready to be filled again once the crops are dry enough.

This year however the quality of the grain is rather poor, but a recent sample tested showed a slightly better bushel weight than one taken earlier.

A bushel is an imperial unit of weight based on a measure of dry capacity. Although a price per tonne has been agreed, deductions are made for moisture content above 15 per cent and also bushel weight if it is below a set standard.

During the damp weather Richard took the opportunity to replace a hydraulic ram on the combine. The ram in question alters the position of reel on the header.

The header is the part of the machine that cuts, then feeds the crop into the body of the combine for thrashing.

Following a recent milk recording, when a milk sample was taken from each cow, the results showed that the somatic cell count readings of some of our cows are still higher than than they should be.

The somatic cell count gives an indication of udder health, so we have been in consultation with our vets to try and reduce further the level of mastitis in the herd.

David, our nutritionist, has also paid us a recent visit to take some silage samples for analysis and check the rations for the milking cows and check the additional nutritional requirements for the different groups of dry cows (those cows now on their two month holiday prior to calving in the autumn).

On Stowell Farm for the first time, the lambs born in February have been sheared. Research has shown that it will prevent them getting too hot and that they will grow better. All the the lambs born this year have had to be re-wormed after faecel samples taken revealed the wormer used earlier had not been effective.

All the wethers (castrated ram lambs ) have been moved onto stubble turnips and 120 ewe lambs have been sold.

Kevin has also sold some barley, picked up by two lorries and taken to Avonmouth. Like ours a sample of the grain showed the moisture was fine but the bushel weight was low.

Looking particularly beautiful at the moment on Manor Farm are large displays of hedge bindweed.

This plant which grows in hedges on farmland has pure white trumpet-shaped blooms, which look almost luminous in the fading light of dusk. They stay open into the night, all night, if there is a moon.

When dawn arrives they live up to their West Country name of morning glory.