During the last week we have had another mixed bag of weather. Rainfall amounted to 44.5mm (not far off 2ins), with 22 mm falling on one day.

It would feel more like summer if the temperature was higher, but apart from a few spells of warm sunshine the wind makes it feel rather chilly.

It was only a few weeks ago our the ground was so dry that the grass had stopped growing and wondering if we would have to add more supplementary feed to the milking cow ration. We now have a situation, following recent rainfall, where we have more grazing than we actually need.

It just shows that however we manage our farms, the weather always reigns supreme.

Our winter cereal crops are now well in ear and we are just hoping that we can keep the pigeons, crows and rooks off our flattened crop of barley, if not they will further destroy the crop following the rain damage.

The winter oilseed rape crop being grown on Manor Farm has now finished flowering, with an abundance of full pods having taken their place.

Moving the in-calf heifers to fresh pasture was done early in the week, mustering together as many helpers as we could. They moved very quietly and were soon happily grazing in their new surroundings.

One day during the week I fetched the cows in for afternoon milking. When I arrived at the field they were scattered from one end to the other, so there was a great deal of ground to cover rounding them up. It was 3pm on a beautiful afternoon. The air was filled with birdsong most of it being made by hovering skylarks and swallows flying low between the cows legs in search of insects.

The fact that they were flying near the ground was an indication that rain was not far away, with threatening clouds building in the distance. Having gathered the cows, I followed them back to the dairy for milking.

Ruth, the lady who does most of our milking was on a well earned day off, so it was Ian who was waiting for the cows to arrive. They were ushered into an under-cover collecting yard, from where they entered the milking parlour, with 10 cows each side standing in a herringbone fashion.

All the cows wear pedometers, connected to a computer, so as each cow passed the sensor the right amount of concentrate feed was dispensed into the feed bowls.

A calculation is made on the amount of nutrients the forage intake will give the cows and based on this our nutritionist will work out what the forage ration will provide, for example maintenance plus x litres of milk per day. Then having programmed the computer the right amount of cubed concentrate ration will be fed to each animal.

Once the cows were in the milking parlour Ian checked the milk from each cow, to make sure it showed no obvious health problems. Then the teats were cleaned and dried, following which Ian put on the milking units. Once each cow had finished milking the unit was removed automatically and flushed through to give it a good clean.

The cows' teats were then sprayed with a disinfectant, before the cows were released from the milking parlour. As each cow was milked a meter measured her milk yield and the total amount given recorded on the computer.

The conductivity of the milk was also noted.

This can give an early indication of a potential udder problem, so if the warning light flashes a sample of milk is taken from each quarter of the cow's udder and individually tested in the milking parlour using a chemical reagent. Our cows are milked twice a day, with morning milking at 5am.