PRONKING AND BOVINE BALLERINAS

Pronking. Such a great word and one used to describe the exuberant gymnastics of young lambs when playing out at grass. Okodag is another great word. Danish in origin it actually translates as Dancing Cow Day. The tradition of Dancing Cow Day takes place in April where hundreds of people all over Denmark go to watch the moment when the cows are let out onto fresh Spring grass after spending the Winter in their barns. Normally very placid and easy going, cows tend to release their inner hooligan when they feel the grass between their toes, tearing around the fields leaping, bucking and ‘dancing’ with joy. Dancing Cow Day is now gaining a following becoming a bit of a hit in the UK with many farms opening their gates to the public solely to watch these bovine ballerinas show off their nifty footwork.

Here at Oak Park Dairy our youngstock are itching to get their dancing shoes on and get out onto their summer grazing, but with a very wet March behind us, the fields are still far too soggy for them to go out. Last year was much drier and everyone was turned out on 12th April. But this year we are going to be a few weeks behind. As you know, us Farmers are not known for obsessing about the weather (!) but did you know that here in Devon we have broken records on the meteorological front. At this point you may wish to contain your excitement as we are about to thrill you with some weather facts. We’ve had the dullest March since 1910 with only 75 hours of sunlight compared to our average of 81.1. AND we’ve had the wettest March in 40 years.

The recent few days of warmer weather has encouraged the grass to grow and although it is now lusciously long, it is rather too long for the cows. As mad as that sounds, grass that has excessive growth only ends up getting trampled flat rather than eaten, so we will probably take off a crop of silage before we let the girls out on the rampage.

Hopefully we can get the forage harvester out by the end of the week. Cropping the grass now before they go out encourages fresh young growth to come through, resulting in a higher quality, higher protein sward which is much more palatable for the girls. It also means we get our first batch of silage in the clamp ready for feeding later in the year when the grass starts to lose its nutritional value.

Warmer weather also can’t come soon enough for our delivery drivers Matt, Eric and Fi. The past few months have been nothing but waterproofs and high viz so they are all looking forward to the warmer mornings when it will be ‘sunshine and shorts’ weather. And who knows, when the warmer weather does make an appearance, you might just catch them pronking their way to your doorstep in the wee small hours of the morning!