The vet had to twist the calf round ninety degrees

The weather forecast said sunshine for the next few days, which is why we booked the silage contractor; John got his field cut, it poured. Torrential stuff. Downpour. Deluge. Monsoon equivalent.

"Hello. Is that Chris? Could we put you off till later in the week. Might take a bit of time for the cut to dry out."

At least the cut is a heavy one.

The first field John was in is new grass and is doing well. As our land is relatively heavy, a grass rotation is good for the friability and fertility of the soil.

The crop of first wheat in a field which had been grass for a number of years, is thriving. Our crop rep who is monitoring it's well being for fertiliser and fungicides says it is the best field he is looking after.

Fingers crossed for a good harvest.

My brother-in-law Geoff has just taken two hives of bees down to our bean field.

"Just be careful around them for a few days until they settle" he said.

"They might be a bit agitated for a day or two. That field is definitely off my list for dog walks for a long time. The beans have already been in flower for some time, but the bees will make sure that all the flowers have been pollinated.

Major excitement was provided by a difficult calving yesterday.

Normally, with occasional wifely help, John can calve most of the herd. But this calving promised a few more challenges than we were prepared to deal with.

John had noticed in the morning on his first check of the herd that this particular cow looked as though she might be thinking about calving.

He had her down as barren and due to make the trip to market when he had a sort out of cull cows at weaning time.

She had moved away from the herd, was bagged up (udder full of milk) and shuffling around in a fidgety sort of way. All technical stuff you note.

By lunch time she still had not calved. Persuading her into the cattle crush in the corral to examine her internally sounds easy, but wasn't.

The calf was alive but presented with one leg and the head twisted behind. Not the sort of thing we would rather risk. Fetch the vet.

The outcome was good. As was the vet.

He had to twist the calf round ninety degrees in the womb and pull the bent leg forward so that the calf presented for it's delivery correctly.

Mrs. Cow is very chuffed. Not distressed.

Or torn. Fortunately John was able to get the calf's ear tags in straight away as he hasn't been able to get near the calf since then.

Mother and son are doing well. And no-one is getting her near a crush for a very long time.