It’s been a year since the first Covid-19 ‘lockdown’ began.

On 16th March 2020 we were nearing the end of spring calving, with just seven calves still to be born.

There was never any question in our minds about facing the unknown challenges ahead.  We rallied together and continued farming throughout the year as did farmers across the UK.  Crops still needed to be sown and harvested and our cattle cared for, so that British food continued to be available in our shops.

We’ve also been swept into the meteoric rise of on-farm Zoom calls and webinars; everything from cattle handling seminars to rewilding and have even purchased a few cattle via video link.

We're grateful to have reasonable broadband, but there are many rural locations and farm businesses that still don't have adequate broadband connection to fascilitate on-line meetings or much needed connections with other people, in what can already be a very isolating life, even before the pandemic.

We enjoy hosting visits to Manor Farm for schools, Colleges and Universities and hope that by doing so, we can share what we do here and why we are farming this land.

Therefore, today we were delighted to welcome via Zoom, the Bartlett School of Planning, University College London (UCL).

Topics for the talk and discussion were centred on farming in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB); making a living in farming, how and why Manor Farm has diversified, the planning system, the Environmental Land Management Scheme and what the future might bring!

Despite the pandemic preventing UCL from visiting us in-person today, it was great to have this opportunity to talk in some detail about farming in the Surrey Hills AONB and maybe next time we’ll be greeting the Undergraduates out in the fields!

This afternoon was one of my favourite jobs, moving the cows and new-born calves from the calving barns, back out to the fields.

Bringing 16th March 2021 to a close, we have eleven more Belted Galloways to calve!