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Jonesy's Farm

Our farming journey as new tenant Dairy Farmers! The high the lows and everything in-between!

27/10/2026

I found a giant puffball mushroom on the farm today! 🍄

Naturally, I was quite excited about my discovery.

Mr Jonesy, however, was considerably less enthusiastic when I announced that I'd found something for our tea. 🤣

Apparently Puffball Schnitzel is delicious... although I'm not sure it's the most perfect Puffball to try for our first taste testing. But at least I know where to look for them again 🍄

25/10/2026

🥛 It's MILK RECORDING time! 🥰🐄

Also known as the job we put off for as long as humanly possible… only to finally do it and wonder why on earth we made such a fuss about it. 🤣

With TB testing coming up next week, we needed to get our milk recording done so we can test the girls for Johne’s disease too!

Cleverly, Johne’s testing can be done through milk samples, which makes life much easier! However, TB testing can interfere with Johne’s test results, so it's important we get our samples taken beforehand.

To milk record, we use these handy little Waikato meters, which we fit into the parlour to measure each cow's milk yield and collect an individual milk sample.

They're brilliant little bits of kit… although they don't half make an already cosy parlour feel even cosier! 🤣

But milk recording gives us so much valuable information! 🥛

Not only can we see exactly how much milk each girl is producing, but the samples can also help us identify potential udder health problems through things like somatic cell counts.

And, of course, there's the BEST bit…
THE DATA! 📊🤓

Give me a spreadsheet full of cow numbers, milk yields and figures to analyse, and I'm one happy lady. 🤣🐄❤️

24/10/2026

200 extra silage bales for winter feed banked... but we are still going to be short of feed this winter 🤧

Thankfully, while the weather was nice last week, we managed to cut around 80 acres of grass, giving us an extra 200 bales to tuck away for winter. 🥳

Now, 200 bales might sound like a lot, and we're certainly not complaining, but these fields hadn't been cut since June, and they didn't yield great then 🥲

After the drought we've had this summer, we were really hoping for a bit more of a late-season recovery, but with very little rain even up till this last week, the grass never really had a chance.

But at this point, every single bale counts! ❤️🐄

We're incredibly thankful to have managed to get this extra grub for the girls, especially as it's looking increasingly likely that we're still going to be considerably short of silage this winter.

It's been one of those years where no matter how hard you work, Mother Nature seems determined to keep you on your toes!

Still, that's another 200 bales we didn't have last week, and we'll take that as a win! 💪🚜

23/10/2026

Just in the nick of time!! 🐄⛈️

Another late night for us last night, but we did it! 🥳

The main cubicle shed was officially finished yesterday, with the (new to us) mats all fitted and ready for their first night indoors of winter 2026! 🐄❤️

And judging by today's weather, we couldn't have timed it much better! 🙈

Storm Austen has well and truly brought autumn to the farm, and with more unsettled weather on the way, we've made the decision to bring the cows in for winter.

It's been another incredibly busy day here, but slowly and surely we're getting those jobs ticked off the never-ending list. ✅

And there was something so satisfying about seeing the girls all tucked up in their shed last night, on their new comfy beds, while the weather did its worst outside. 🥰

Stay safe out there, everyone! ❤️⛈️

21/10/2026

With the girls getting ready to come inside for winter, we decided it would be a great time to do some work to their shed. Obviously. Not when they were happily out grazing (well eating their way through our winter bales) all summer 😉😝

Well we recently managed to get our hands on some second-hand cow mats from a farmer who was retiring. And while they're not brand spanking new, the majority are in good condition!
Even better, we've managed to get enough out of the bundle to cover the whole of our main cow shed! 🥳

These mats are going to make a HUGE difference to the girls' comfort compared to what they had before.

And judging by Geraint's rather enthusiastic testing of the new beds, I think they've already got his seal of approval! 👍🤣

He keeps telling me it will be easier once all the jobs are done, but we all know more jobs will be added in along the way 🤣

Now, if someone could just work out how to squeeze an extra 10 hours into every day, that would be fabulous! 🤣🐄❤️

14/10/2026

Behind every quiet cow is a farmer who has spent far too many hours giving them fusses. 🥰🐮

And it all starts when they're calves! ❤️

Some might call it wasting time… I call it an investment in our future milking herd. 😉

After all, a calm, happy cow that's comfortable around people makes life so much easier for everyone.

And if that means we have to spend a ridiculous amount of time cuddling calves, well… it's a sacrifice we are willing to make. 🤣❤️

02/10/2026

This little calf’s mum needed a bit of a helping hand to get the head out… but once we got to that point?

Ropes down. Hands off. Let mum do the rest. ✋🐮

And this little one gave a super clear example as to why we do that...

Watch the clear, sticky fluid coming from the calf as its body passes through the birth canal. This is a really important step in the transition from fetal life to breathing on their own, so even though we helped mum at the start, as long as everything looks OK, we step back and allow this stage to happen naturally.

❤️🐄

01/10/2026

Turns out Mr Jonesy was right and there WAS an easy fix for the roller… 😎🤣

So, back at it! 🚜

Although I must admit, this is absolutely NOT a job I want to be doing regularly.

Turns out rolling a freshly ploughed field when you suffer from motion sickness is… an experience. 🤢🤣

Hopefully it will all be worth it when we see those lovely fresh grass seeds start shooting up through 🤞

Ploughing has its place when it comes to keeping grassland productive, and it can also help to naturally break up w**d burdens too! 🌱

29/09/2026

Just one teeny tiny problem…

The roller has decided it no longer wishes to identify as part of the roller. 🤣🤣

For anyone unfamiliar with agricultural machinery, that massive round thing lying peacefully in the field is, in fact, supposed to be INSIDE THE FRAME THAT IS STILL ATTACHED TO THE TRACTOR.

Oops 😬

It's a good a time as any to say thats enough for today 🤣

This is tomorrow's problem 🙈

Lou x

23/09/2026

Imagine everyone who relies on some form of financial support being put into one room.

There isn't enough room for everyone.

They're told:

“At some point today, a huge bag of money is going to drop. We won't tell you exactly when. There isn't enough for all of you. First come, first served.”

What happens?

Absolute carnage.

A stampede. Everyone desperately trying to grab what they can before it's gone.

Now imagine that, just as the money drops, the fire sprinklers go off and the lights start flickering.

Some people can't get through the door.

Some get halfway there and are thrown back out.

Others are desperately trying and ringing for help.

And while all of that is happening…

The money is disappearing.

That is pretty much what happened to British farmers yesterday.

At 10am, the Rural Payments Agency opened Window 2 of the Sustainable Farming Incentive.

A scheme designed to pay farmers to carry out environmental work, support food production and improve the resilience of their farms.

For many farms, this isn't a nice little bonus.

It's income that has become increasingly important to the viability of the business.

By 3:48pm, it was over.

Less than SIX HOURS.

Enough applications had been received to allocate the entire £233 MILLION budget.

And during those few frantic hours, farmers and agricultural consultants across the country were battling technical problems, desperately trying to get applications submitted before the door slammed shut.

Some made it.

Many others didn't.

We keep asking:

“Why are farmers leaving the industry?”

Well yesterday gave us a pretty spectacular example of why.

Because when a £233 million farming support scheme can effectively be exhausted in less than six hours, perhaps the question should be:

Why has producing our food become so financially difficult that thousands of farmers are desperately racing one another for that support?

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