New Boots, Bloated Goats & Vizsla Training

So half term is officially over and it’s back to school for me... But what a busy half term it has been!

On Sunday, I competed in the West Midlands Area round of YFC Junior Member of the year... I really enjoyed giving my presentation and having an interview. There was some stiff competition so I didn’t walk away with a place card this time but there’s always next year! 

I spent the beginning of the week having a bit of a relax and catching up on some work. I also did some writing for a Farmers Weekly writing competition about my farming hero. I really enjoyed writing it so I will probably post it on my blog at some point.

I also did a piece with Farmland UK which I’m sure you already saw but if you didn’t I will link it here.

On Wednesday, I went up to stay with my Aunty in Worcestershire as my sister was going into hospital in Liverpool. I spent a couple of days up at the yard with the goats and horses which was well needed.

I’m pleased to report that little Beattie is settling in really well... When we first got her she was quite bloated and quiet, but within th first week we brought her up to date with the boys‘ vaccinations and worming. She definitely had worms but shes much healthier and happier now. Her bloat has gone down and shes eating much better. She’s a very happy little girl with a lot of personality so I’m glad that she’s with us now!

I also spent some time (attempting) to train my cousin’s Vizsla. He has had him for around a year now and he’s very keen to learn. In the three days or so that I was with him I got him to stop racing ahead and pulling on the lead out on walks, to walking to heel and listening to me all the time. We also did some practice of retrieving which he seems to really be getting the hang of.

Another exciting thing was that my Christmas present from my Aunty finally arrived from America! She got me a pair of Ariat Hermosa boots and I absolutely love them. They are brown leather, steel toe boots which will be great for wearing to the yard and for work experience. I’m looking forward to testing them out and I will most likely do a review of these on my blog in the near future.

I spent the remainder of the half term visiting my sister in Liverpool, it was great to see her and she was looking really well.

AgriBuy- a Modern Agricultural Marketplace

We have been talking about getting a little run around tractor for up at the yard for a few years now but not actively looking for one… We’ve constantly got an ear out in case anyone we know is selling a used one locally, but it’s difficult because as soon as you hear of a good one it has more often than not been snapped up before you can get out to see it!

I recently discovered a website called AgriBuy which is essentially the eBay of farm machinery! It is a dream come true for anyone who loves to flick through the classified pages at the back of Farmers Weekly!

It’s incredibly user-friendly and easy to navigate which is definitely a bonus. Anyone can list their used machinery, it’s free and easy to register and you can list things for free… They claim that you can post a sale in under 3 minutes which is really convenient and means that anyone can do it.

The website is designed to work on your computer and your mobile devices which makes it really easy to browse wherever you are and whenever you get a spare minute. This is really useful for someone like me as I can hop on the website for a couple of minutes to check for new stock, a much more efficient way of shopping than just asking around locally.

They are paired with some leading finance companies which can provide good options for you to make your purchases. But I’m sure that farmers being farmers will shop about for the best deal regardless!

I think that it is definitely worth a look for anyone wanting to buy or sell used agricultural machinery. You can visit the website here: https://www.agribuy.co.uk/

** Disclaimer- I have written this post in collaboration with AgriBuy, however, all opinions and points are my own and are honest.

Hunting & Exciting Projects

This weekend was a busy one we were invited to the wedding of one of my sister’s childhood best friends. On Friday night we went to the Mendhi and we attended the wedding on Saturday night but this still left time for hunting on Saturday morning!

On Saturday morning, after a late night, we headed up to West Warwickshire country for the meet. It was the children's meet and it’s always a good one as all of the kids are out on their ponies. There was even a pony with a heart clipped onto its bum out this week!

It was snowing in Worcestershire which of course made it very cold, but set the scene nicely. Although there was no snow settling on the ground... Nevertheless, we were wrapped up in tweed and fur so the cold wasn't a problem! I was very grateful for my Le Chameaus as I have the neoprene lined ones and they kept my feet toasty and warm.

The meet was at a large, well-known, local estate and they hunted on and around the estate. We stayed and followed for a little while but it was a very cold day and it was fairly quiet so we ended up nipping down the road for lunch.

We went for lunch at the Hillers Garden Café and I had my favourite Caesar salad and chips... We had a nice visit with my aunt and then we went home to get ready for the wedding.

Last week I was working on a few projects, one with Farmland Magazine that should be coming out soon, and another with my young farmers club that I am going to be covering on my blog. I will be letting you know more in the coming weeks about these as and when I can.

I am on half term next week and have something very exciting coming up with the lovely team at Ariat so I am looking forward to working on that.

To make sure that you are kept up to date with my latest projects, make sure that you are following me on Twitter and Instagram (both @woesofwellies) and like my new Facebook page! 

Weekend Update

This weekend was a busy one! On Saturday we went up to my Aunties house to meet with my sister's wedding caterer. It was also my eldest sister’s birthday so we spent the evening with my family having a nice dinner and visit everyone, tomorrow is my other sister's birthday so we will be celebrating with her then. As well as that we managed to get up to the yard to see Beattie, find out how she is getting on and to trim the goat’s hooves.

Beattie is settling in well although still not mixing with the boys... I trimmed her hooves as well as the boys this weekend and I was pleasantly surprised at how well she stood for it! When trimming their feet I tend to put them on a harness and then walk them up on top of the mounting block to make it a bit easier for me to see what I am doing, but as it was the first time doing her feet I didn’t want to make it too tricky so did hers on the ground. She was very good about it, even better behaved than the boys are most of the time so that was a relief! The goats were all wormed in the previous week so she is now up to date with their injections too which is a relief.

Sunday was a very different day... We had our young farmers entertainment competition which involved my club’s performance of a gogglebox skit. There were boys dressed as girls, renditions of Let it Go (complete with Elsa costume) and a lip syncing performance of Wannabe by the Spice Girls from me and the other junior members. It was a fun day out as we stayed to watch the other clubs performances too. There were lots of Britains Got Talent style performances and  Bake Off skit. It’s fair to say that Worcestershire has got talent! In the end, we didn’t win but we had great fun and got lots of good feedback...

Looking forward to the next few weeks I am hoping to do some lambing and spend some more time up at the yard as I am on half-term the week after next. I am working on a few exciting projects that I can hopefully reveal soon so make sure you are following me on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook for updates! 

New Addition to the Herd!

Well when I woke up this morning the last thing I expected to be doing was lifting a pygmy goat into the back of our Discovery and taking it home to the herd, but I guess that’s farming for you!

We went up to visit my Aunty this morning to visit her and have a trip up to the yard to see the horses and trim the goat's feet etc. Just general weekend tasks... We stopped at her house and she told us that her landlord had driven past our field the other day and noticed our two little pygmy goats. He had been in touch because he had had two nanny pygmies himself, but sadly one had passed away just the week before. With goats being herd animals and needing company he was looking to rehome the second one so she wouldn’t be alone anymore. He asked if we would like her to add to our herd and she of course said yes! The plan was to pick her up sometime in the next week after clearing out the horse box (which the goats currently go into at night time) however, we had a think and decided to give him a ring to ask if we could collect her today. He said that we could come over in an hour so we had a quick cup of tea (necessary!) and then popped down to the yard to put horse rug down in the back of the Land Rover and grab the goat lasso and head collar. When we were loaded up and had transformed the Discovery into a goat transporter – we just emptied the back and put a rug down – we headed off to pick up the new goat. We met her and spoke to the owner and then he helped us load her into the car. It was only literally down the road so she was in the car for less than 5 minutes but she did really well in the car. We unloaded her when we got back to the yard, introduced her to the boys over the fence and now she’s settled for the night separately from the boys until the morning where they will hopefully meet each other closer up and will start to make friends.

She is a 5-year-old nanny pygmy goat and she is just about the same size as the boys if a little bit bigger. We have called her Beattie (short for Beatrice) as we are sticking with the royal naming theme – we now have Will, Harry and Beattie after Princess Beatrice! She seems to have a lovely little temperament and I hope that she is going to be very happy and spoilt in her new home!

Stay tuned for more updates on little Beattie, rest assured there will be lots of photos on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook so make sure you are following me! 

YFC Stockman of the Year

Last Sunday I headed up to Worcester Cattle Market with a few other members of my Young Farmers club for the Worcestershire Young Farmers Stockman of the Year competition. As many of you know, my one previous stock judging experience from last year (which you can read about here) wasn’t all that successful. So it won’t surprise you to hear that I did not sign myself up for this competition, it’s just what you get when you don’t turn up to a meeting!

Anyway, I turned up ready for my young stockman of the year competition with my shirt, tie, white coat, freshly showered wellies (go and check out my Instagram if you don’t know what I’m talking about!) and all of the other things you need for stock judging. However, we got there and it was decided that we didn’t have enough members for a junior team, hence I was promoted to the senior stock judging team.

The first task of the day was the animal health and husbandry questionnaire which was definitely a challenge despite the fact that it was multiple choice! Once I had completed that it was on to the stock judging... The four classes we were judging were dairy cows, butchers cattle, finished lambs and butchers pigs. I had only ever judged breeding ewes so it was all new to me! I enjoyed judging the dairy cows the most and definitely had the most to say about them.

The first ring I had to judge was butchers cattle, then finished lambs, butchers pigs and finally dairy cows. I surprised myself with how much information I was able to come up with for my reasoning...

At the end of the day, we managed to come 7th out of 12 which we were quite pleased with as we aren’t a team of experienced competitors.

If you get the chance to be involved in a stock judging competition I would definitely recommend it as it helps you to develop your understanding of livestock and the requirements for the current market. Not only that, but it also helps to develop your presentation skills and encourages you to make observations and decisions under time pressure. It is something that I think everyone in YFC should have a go at!

If you are interested in joining your local young farmer's club you can find more information from the NFYFC here. 

#studentfarmer Blogger of the Year!

Just a quick one this weekend (but keep your eyes peeled for a stock judging one later this week as I’ve been today!)...

Back in December, just before Christmas, I was contacted by the lovely team over at #studentfarmer magazine (for the NFU) who let me know that I had been nominated as Blogger of the Year. I was really excited (and flattered, so a massive thank you to whoever nominated me!) as I had never been nominated for anything like this before... I love reading student farmer magazine and after visiting the NFU HQ last year and meeting some of the team it was very exciting. I received a call from student farmer where I took part in an interview which was great, Chad from student farmer was really easy to talk to and made me feel at ease.

A couple of days later I received an email from student farmer saying that I had won! I honestly couldn’t believe it, and I couldn’t wait for the January awards edition to come out so I could read the pieces about me and all of the other young people that had been nominated for different awards. There are some great stories in there of such inspirational people. My feature is so nice and I can’t thank student farmer enough for all of their kind words. You can find the online edition of the magazine here.

If you are a student or a YFC member you can apply for membership to the NFU completely FREE! You can sign up here and then you will receive copies of #studentfarmer and British Farmer & Grower so you can keep up to date.

You can also follow student farmer on Twitter and Instagram both at @studentfarmer...