AS the cold spell rumbles on it does tend to make life more difficult, with water troughs freezing up and the calf rearing machine also appearing to take a dislike to the weather.

We have also taken advantage of the cold dry weather by spreading slurry. We had the umbilical cord (large hosepipe) in to spread a lot of the slurry round the farm and we have also spent a fair old bit of time carting slurry to our land away from the farm.

We’ve also had a contractor in to spread our yard muck with a rear discharge spreader and, my God, can those big spreaders shift muck quickly.

We’ve also been selling calves this last week at Bentham Auction Mart. It was the Christmas show and we managed to get a third prize in the heifer class and, yes, there were more than three calves in the class!

We're also with getting my sheep scanned tomorrow so hopefully it all goes well.