GOOD FENCES - ON THE FARM

This and tomorrow’s post is about Jimmy, my bird watching friend and myself travelling last Monday by train from Bangor to a tiny village in Country Antrim called Glynn. The train left us at the platform which looks out over the Lough and we sat for a while looking at various ducks, Merganser and Gulls however the tide was in and we decided to walk up to the village and along the river and were very surprised how quiet it was without bird song.   

This is the railway bridge looking back from the river.  

Jimmy.

This the stone bridge over the very narrow road in the village.

Horse Chestnut leaves turning colour.

It was not long before a Land Rover and trailer passed us with cattle in it and I went to take a video of the cattle coming out and into the field. 

You can access this video at     CLICK HERE

Afterwards taking the video the farmer, John Blair came to talk to us and invited us up to his farm where he said he had a lake with wildlife on it.   I should have taken a video of Jimmy getting into this Land Rover because it was hilarious and I thought we might have needed a tin opener to get him out again!!!!  The other farmer also called John took my telescope in the front, John Blair’s daughter,  was in the middle and the dog, Jip was sitting on our feet along with all our other gear.   It was great fun.  This is Jip below back in the farmyard.

 Unfortunately it started to rain and we arrived at the farm which was 350’ above sea level and on a good day would have magnificent views over the Antrim coast and beaches. 

 John is the ninth generation to farm this 350 acres of land and this photo above is the part of the previous house however this house below was built in 1924 with the extension being added later.

 John gave us a small tour of the farm and we met his cat called Milo. 

As well as having beef cattle he also has 200 head of milking cows and we were shown the spot clean miking parlour.  The cattle at present at still out in the daytime however when they come in for 2^nd miking then afterwards they go into these stalls for the night.  

The floor is made of this very thick special foam below so it is very comfortable for the cattle.

Then we went to see some of the calves.  Apart from these calves there were other out houses with calves at different ages.

 This cow has just given birth a few hours ago to her calf because we could see some of the afterbirth still attached to her.  While we were there the calf finally struggled to this feet.  

In the next 2 shots were 1 week old calves, one a Friesian below and the one above a beefy Belgium Blue.

This is the newly born Friesian calf.

This is John’s daughter Emma who was on half term holidays.

In the farmyard, we saw John’s lovely White Doves.  

In the first shot there is also a Rook.

Once again we packed into the Land Rover however as John the other farmer had left there was room for Jimmy in the front.  I kept Jip company as John took us quite a distance to see his lake.  Unfortunately it was raining quite heavily and we decided not to get out but hopefully will come back on a better day in the springtime to see what wildlife we can find there.

Finally John took us down to sea level again to another lake where we thanked him for his kindness and went to see what was on it however that will have to wait until tomorrow.

I have a very short video of the cow and day old calf.  If you cannot see it below CLICK HERE 

I hope you enjoyed the unexpected trip to John’s farm with us.

I am linking this post with GOOD FENCES.  

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