THE new Saler bull has now served all of the cows in the suckler herd. At least we presume he has, as no cows are bulling, and he has no lustful interest in any of them. Cows come bulling on a three-week cycle, and the bull has been working very hard, so with no sign of any of them coming back into season, John is confident that Mr Bull has fulfilled all expectations. Fortunately the herd grazes fields that are well inland and away from our neighbour's milking herd. He too runs a bull with his cows, and the cows are covered as soon as they come bulling, and not left to present a temptation to outsiders.

This is not always the case. Last week we heard of a bull that went visiting a neighbouring herd. Not a recommended practice in these days of foot and mouth movement restrictions, but unfortunately nature does not always read the rules. The bull was tracked down and put into a trailer before he had caused any trouble, but his owner was then faced with the problem of returning the bull back up the road to his own field. It is no longer possible just to freely drive around the countryside with stock. A five thousand pound fine has put an end to that. The bull's owner had to ring DEFRA and ask for an official to come out and supervise the movement, and check whether an vet was also required to make sure that all the stock involved was not infected. The original call was made early morning after the bull had been missed, and then rounded up. By mid afternoon a call from the ministry informed the farmer that officials would call the next day to supervise the return of the bull. Unacceptable on a very hot day, for the welfare of the bull. Following a threat of involving the police and animal welfare organisations to escort the bull back, an official eventually turned up at the end of the day to supervise the journey of several hundred yards.

Fortunately there is no such restriction on the movements of our geese. The seven Grey Lag geese that John put down on our pond have now been reduced to five after a couple of fox visits, but these remaining geese are wary and wise, and take to the water at the whiff of trouble. They have all regrown their flight feathers and take off each morning to fly into the unknown. At night, tempted back by a liberal sprinkling of barley on the pond, they come home. Their return is spectacular. A distant honking, a V formation in the darkening sky, and then ten minutes of lapping the pond in ever decreasing circles until the final touch down. Two of the geese have not quite mastered the skill of judging the landing distance, and occasionally overshoot the pond to land in the field next door. They then waddle back to the fence and quickly flip over as though that was what they meant to do all the time.

None of the geese nested this year so there are no goslings on the pond. No peacock chicks either in the farmyard. Peepee, our peahen, has finally come off the nest, but has brought no chicks with her. All the eggs were addled, a great disappointment. She is more tolerant of the peacock than she was before, so there is hope that in the spring they may get together properly and produce some fertile eggs. We were afraid we might lose Peepee before she even got to the stage of laying more eggs, as she was very light and weak after leaving her nest. A varied diet of dried cat food, cornflakes, sugar puffs, grapes, apples, teacakes, turkey pellets and brown bread has tempted her back into taking an interest in her surroundings. And my petunias and busy lizzies.

Updated: 10:28 Thursday, September 06, 2001