Page 32 - The Farming Years proof

BARLEY BEEF
fed on rolled barley and a supplement to balance the protein. on February 12th 1978 we bought a further two one-week old bull- ock calves and put the two further weaned calves in the barn with the rst two on rolled barley and supplement feed. The nal 2 calves were weaned and put in the barn with the previous four. It all seemed to work. Then we sold the cow back to Reg Paybody. I think, at this point, Jo was training in preparation for her riding school and the horses would need all our available buildings. So, to complete the story, we sold the two oldest bullocks on 16th Jan- uary 1979 for £740 making £205 net pro t. on 8th May 1979 we sold the remaining 4 bullocks for £1,456 making a £395 net pro t.
I think, naively, the fact we were only buying 2 calves at a time re- sulted in us paying more than the commercial price so, in the end, it wasn’t a fair trial.
one of the last 4 bullocks was a Hereford and was such a good example that Chris Bletsoe wanted Sylvia to put it in his annual fat stock show at Thrapston market. She was attached to them – but not that much and I don’t think she was keen on walking round the ring wearing a white smock with a bullock on a halter!
We bought 18 pullets and hen hut for £45 in 1976 and then anoth- er one a year later with supporting hens and sold the eggs at the gate. our claim to fame was we were the only source of fresh food in the village in the snow storms of 1977 when the village was cut off for 2 or 3 days. I was, fortunately, abroad buying shoe uppers!
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