What to look for in March

Spring is here.  The days are lengthening, and the grass is beginning to grow.   After the winter months indoors in the barn, the cows are out in the fields enjoying the fresh grass.

Rich spring grass is the ideal feed to help the cows produce milk. Each day at milking time the herd makes its way back to the farmyard.

Spring calving is well underway in beef herds.   If the weather allows, the cows calve out of doors where there is less risk of infection for the new-born. This day-old calf is curled up in the bottom of the hedgerow, out of the wind.

As soon as her calf is born, a cow will start licking it, to dry it off and warm it up.  Most importantly, the licking helps to create a bond between the cow and her calf, ensuring that the cow will want to feed and protect the calf, and the calf will recognise her as its mother.

The calves grow quickly on a diet of milk and summer grass.

With the grass beginning to grow, there is work to be done on the fields that will be cut for silage in a few months’ time.  Raking the fields with harrows pulls up any dead grass.  Using a heavy roller to flatten out any bumps, creates a smooth surface for the mower that will cut the grass.  The roller leaves the stripy pattern you will see on some grass fields at this time of year.

Potatoes are an important crop in Cornwall and the main crop is planted at this time of year.  Seed potatoes are planted in rows and the soil is ridged up around them.  This protects new shoots from any late frost and will keep the new crop of potatoes buried and out of the sunlight.  Potatoes turn green if exposed to light and cannot be eaten.

In a few months, the potato plants will fill the field with green.  These potatoes will be ready to harvest in late summer and early autumn.

April is a lovely time to be out in the countryside.  The first swallows arrive this month, returning from their winter migration, and the dawn chorus of blackbirds and other songbirds can be heard each morning.

There is frog spawn in the streams…

… and primroses bring a splash of yellow to the hedgerows.  A sure sign of Spring.