Gracie Moos move house!

Although it's December, the mild weather has meant that the Gracie Moos (David's pet cows!) are still outside.  All the farmers are leaving their animals out grazing as long as possible as everyone is short on hay and winter feed this year.  Sussex cattle are a particularly hardy breed anyway, but we do bring the pampered Gracie Moos into the yard for the winter. 

We have recently taken on some new ground not far away from the farm and David moved the cows over there last week to give them some new grass.  They now have a HUGE 18 acre field to trot about in!  David or his dad go over there every day to check on them and so they are used to human contact.  As soon as  they spot a human at their gate, there is a chorus of mooing and a sound like thunder as they all gallop across the field.  And here they are, several tons of beef approaching at speed!

It never ceases to amaze me just how big these girls are, especially as they exist purely on grass and very little supplementary feed - they get the odd mouthful of barley or lucerne as a special treat.  Here are a couple of the older ones:

And those cute little calves have grown!  Solid little people.  And boy, can they run fast!

And just to give you some idea of just how much space they have now - those little dots in the centre of the picture are the Gracie Moos!

I don't know how much longer they will stay outside - just depends on what the weather does over the next few weeks.

Meantime, it was a late night making cheese last night.  We desperately need more fresh cheese to sell this week and so I pulled a late shift at the cheese plant - went up there after evening milking and made cheese.  Got back to the farm by 1am this morning ... yawn ... 

Tomorrow I have to go and do some more deliveries to shops that have sold everything I delivered on Friday!  And then it's up to Dargate to visit the Cheesemakers of Canterbury Open Day.  If you are in Kent and have the time and inclination - Jane has opened up the cheese plant at Dargate for 3 days so that visitors can come and see cheese being made.  We also have a number of other local producers selling their delicious produce including Rough Old Wife cider with their stunning warmed spiced cider.  Warms the parts other ciders cannot reach!