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We have to get up early...
At about 7 o’clock in the morning we milk the cows. In summer when the cows spend the night outside in the fields, we have to be there earlier to take the cows to the barn. In winter they are already there.
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It takes us between an hour and a half to two hours to get the milking parlour ready, milk the cows and then clean the milking parlour.
 
After milking, the cows are fed in the big barn.
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Then, in summer, they go and graze in the fields, although the door of the barn is left open and if they are in fields next to the barn they can go inside if they want to. In winter they stay in the barn.
Every day we go and check the heifers to see if they are alright. They are in their barn or the fields that are the furthest away from the farm house...
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They spend the summer grazing and we have to check to see if they have water.
 
In the winter, when they are in their barn, we have to give them hay, concentrate and spread fresh straw where they sleep.
Another job that needs to be done every day is checking on the pigs, chickens, rabbits, sheep and dry cows (about to calve) to make sure they are all alright. Weather permitting, they are let out every day and they forage in the fields for their favourite food: grass, insects, grubs, etc. They are also given some concentrate and the hens and pigs get slops from the farmhouse and allotment rubbish.
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| If there are any calves, they have to be fed (milk from their mums) and new straw laid in their barn. |
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In the afternoon, at about 3 o’clock or half past three, the slurry is cleared from the cow barn with the slurry scraper.
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| At around 4 o’clock the cows are fed... |
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| ... and then everything is prepared ready for milking again in the evening at seven o’clock. |
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As the cows are milked they go back out to the fields in the summer to graze, chew on the cud and sleep. In winter they stay in the barn with some hay for supper.
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Before going home, we have to check that all the pigs, sheep and hens are in their barns.
If there are no lambs the sheep stay outside in the summer, but if a sheep has lambed they go inside.... there are foxes around. The pigs sometimes overnight outside in the summer too.
In our website corner “Month by month on the farm” you can see what special jobs need doing on the farm in each season of the year, apart from the chores that need to be done every day of the year .... without exception!
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A day on the Vista Alegre farm
