WE hope that we have turned a corner on a very distressing time with regard to our young calves.

When we lost the first calf just over a week ago we thought it was maybe a weak calf. It may have been injured by the bull. Who is now back on fighting form. Well not fighting form. Romantic form.

Doing what a bull should be doing when faced with a herd of desirable ladies keen to foster a positive relationship with him.

But then we lost another calf. The same sequence of events with the calf weakening despite treatment.

So we asked the vet to do a thorough investigation as to what was happening. Not just treating the calves when they were ill, but anticipating any problems. His judgment was that the calves were going down with pneumonia. And it was treatable and preventable.

Since then we have not lost another calf, although virtually every calf in the herd had started to demonstrate signs of pneumonia, but then all have responded to treatment.

We are very relieved. A friend who is also a vet suggested that we opened up the doors of the fold yard to ensure a flow of air at head height to the calves. Although the silage yard is virtually open aired, apart from a roof over the clamp, the fold yard is more contained. No longer. John has used a metal fence to secure the yard entrance, but it has opened up the flow of air into the cows. They have responded, especially the calves, to crowding at this open area, all gazing pensively out through the fence and send a psychic message to us "we want to go out and into the fields".

Well they can't. Not yet. The land is still too wet and soggy and if they were out in the pastures the herd would soon be poaching the grass and ruining it for the summer. When it comes.

But the whole mood of the farm house has lifted. John, a very equable and phlegmatic man, can rapidly turn into a very grumpy and short tempered fellow when things are not going right. We are back to equable and phlegmatic I am pleased to say.

And the last of the flock have started to lamb too. At one stage we thought this group were not In lamb at all, but a quick grope, by John, of the shearlings' udders, assured him that they were soon all going to produce. And they have. Just a couple of sheep to go now and the whole flock has lambed. We are still left with our three pet lambs to feed, but they are now spending more time in the day in my back garden and really putting on weight and doing well.

Surprisingly, the skinny scrawny tiniest one of the lambs has become quite a bully boy, having worked out that he can get under the other two and knock them off the bottle and gain it for himself. Being sneaky wins every time.