Cattle Wellbeing and Monday Check.

With regards to previous posts raising concerns about the cattle - obviously this time of year is quite hard on them due to lack of lush vegetation. However, please rest assured that we keep a close eye on them and are constantly monitoring their condition and general health.

Research shows that cattle spend around 14 hours a day lying down and approximately 6 hours a day chewing the cud (dependant on forage type). It is important for cattle to have this downtime as it is when they ruminate and also their opportunity to rest and dry off etc. Bearing those figures in mind it is more likely that you'll see the animals at rest on your visits. Understandably if you experience this this over several consecutive visits it can start to appear that the animal(s) are potentially listless or out of character.

However, this is not to say that some of the behaviour you see and report is not out of the ordinary and we always investigate such reports. With this in mind I checked in on the cattle yesterday afternoon after several blog posts about lethargy etc.

All four cattle were actively grazing when I found them and after a quick investigation of me they resumed their browsing activities. Two of the youngsters were grazing the first small grasses coming through while the other youngster was grazing heather. Lola, meanwhile, was happily browsing on birch scrub. Condition wise Lola is looking as good as ever and the youngsters are looking as one would expect for this time of year. They're not thin but are obviously slightly down in condition but that is understandable given the rougher forage that they are tackling at the moment.

With the first of the grasses beginning to come through now they will start to get more opportunity to graze on more lush forage. In the meantime we will continue to monitor them and will take appropriate action if the need arises.

I hope this goes someway to helping you all feel better about the cattle but if you have any follow up queries or concerns then feel free to get in contact with me.

Regards

Rich.