There's no smoke without fire!

There's been real drama down on the farm in the last few months...

Whilst on his way to work in early December, Farmer Neil spotted flames from the calf shed. He called the fire brigade. Lynda and David were not far behind in dialling 999!

The whole barn was alight in various places, the water pipes had burst and the bales were aglow.

The fire brigade were quickly on the scene but couldn't enter the building until it had been properly assessed in case it was dangerous and might collapse.

Our first thought was for the calves. Who would help them? Some had managed to escape because the string tying their gates had melted, allowing the gates to fall and the animals to pass. But there were still calves inside, so Neil and Lynda waded through thick black smoke to rescue them. Some of the clever calves were sheltering under a fountain of water coming from one of the burst water pipes and Neil and Lynda herded them out to safety.

Could we save the building? The burning bales were removed from the building by tractor grab to try to maintain as much of the building's structure intact as possible. Amazingly, the straw that was taken out of the barn burned in a heap in the field for 5 days!

It seems that the fire had started with a heat lamp which had been warming a poorly calf.

We were really blessed - the positive thing about the whole episode was that it has given us an opportunity to rebuild the shed and make it purpose built for rearing young calves. We have had to replace half the roof and the upright posts but it could have been so much worse...

Now we have five star accommodation for the youngest members of our bovine family.

and:

Happy cows = Happy Farmers