WONDERFUL! The summer sunshine we have all enjoyed recently — it makes everyone happy and full of fun and vitality.  A catch-up from my spring article — the TB plan has been reluctantly agreed with DEFRA but is by no means satisfactory to the graziers of the Commons. We find ourselves in a 'box ticking' situation for cattle movements, while fearing the unresolved issue is that the wildlife will continue to roam with no restrictions on them, unlike the cattle, which seem to be far less important in the eyes of the government and its advisors.  Lots of good hay and silage has been made, although there is still a lot to do on the hill farms, with the crops just needing a boost with the recent rain. Looking around the countryside you see a colourful patchwork of yellow and green fields and from the top of my farm you can see a panoramic view of who has harvested and who hasn't by the yellowy light brown fields that show up in the sunlight being the ones that have had crops taken from them.  Shearing has also been easy this year with the settled dry weather to shear our flock of sheep — but the wool has little value nowadays and if the fleeces are wet they have no value at all. Shearing is a labour intensive process as the sheep have a health check at the same time. We check feet and teeth, worming and spraying to protect them against 'fly strike'. It's not only labour intensive but an expensive process due to the low world wool price, which is demoralising, so the only good thing is the fun and good humour we have with the shearing team, who are physically very fit and need immense stamina to shear many sheep every day through the shearing season. Our contract shearer is called Trev who runs a shearing gang very efficiently — he is a farmer's son who I have watched grow up from a child in Spooners Pony Club, to a point to point rider and now a very good shearer. There are many stories I could write about Trev but I will leave that for another day . . .  Summer is the time for the farming community to work hard but we also do the rounds of agricultural shows. It gives us a good chance to meet up with old chums we have not seen for a while and also do business with an array of trading businesses that we deal with over the year. Our favourite is Okehampton Show, which is well worth a visit by anyone who hasn't been. It's interesting for us, as the show provides the opportunity for the local Galloway breeders to show off the homebred stock. The cattle are shown in very stock-proof gated pens as most of them have just come off the high moor and are not tame and docile like other cattle shown. So in August we select and wash and shampoo six or eight of them, which is a rodeo in itself, and head off to show what we have produced on our farm.  Farming has always been connected with horses for work and pleasure and an event that many of us enjoy is when our local hunts have what is known as a 'puppy show'. Hunts hold one every summer where all the young hounds are proudly shown off by the master/huntsmen, the hunt supporters provide a delicious tea, and it's a chance for us girls to give the frock and straw hat an airing — it's truly old England for an afternoon!  On the subject of horses I was lucky enough to attend the Devon and Cornwall Point to Point Dinner and Dance awards ceremony. Many farmers and country folk are connected with horse racing and on this evening every year, the owners, trainers and jockeys are recognised for their success during the season. Point to point racing is the nursery for the big steeple chases such as the ones at Cheltenham. This year's dinner and dance had a lively young crowd, with all the jockeys dressed smartly in their evening suits , with their pretty girlfriends in new party dresses and a good evening was had by all. A good friend of mine went to the dinner several years ago. She was tall and loved dancing and said the young jockeys all looked lovely out of their riding silks – so strong and fit from the rigours of hours of devotion to horses — but so small and thin due to their strict riding weight restrictions.  Back to talk about work, which is in full swing on the high moor with cattle, sheep and ponies now grazing the highest and most inaccessible areas of the moor. This means a regular check by the farmers of their stock, usually by quad bike, but there are still one or two who ride a horse. It is my favourite job on the farm, especially in good weather, but it has to be done whatever the weather throws at us. The peace and quiet broken only by the beautiful sound of the skylarks on the high moor is truly amazing and the cotton grass and moorland plants are a delight and a great joy to see. This year has also been especially good for the wild orchid.  The young calves, lambs and foals which I have watched being born are now growing up and grazing alongside their mothers, who teach them instinctively their own 'lear' — areas where each herd and flock regularly grazes. This instinct is passed down through many generations of animals and when some of today's young females become mothers, they in turn will return to their lear with their young. The animals will travel from the home farm sometimes many miles to reach their own lear, like a homing pigeon returning to its home roost, and this is a part of traditional livestock grazing on the high moor. The different species — the cattle, the sheep and the ponies — each graze slightly different areas of the commons, creating an established pattern of grazing of livestock, which is so important to keep the biodiversity on the moor in balance.  The Dartmoor Commoners' Council held elections in May and June for grazier representatives of the commons. Dartmoor is divided into four quarters and each quarter has five graziers, including one small grazier, who are all elected by the farmers and land owners with 'Rights of Common'. There are nearly 1,000 farmers and landowners with common rights around Dartmoor and around 250 in each quarter. Each councillor is elected for a four year period but there are elections for two out of the four grazing representatives in each quarter every two years. It was my turn again this year — it's always quite daunting to be judged by your neighbours and the farming community. I was fortunate to be re-elected and I would like to thank everyone for their support. Some of the other quarters have new faces on the committee and I am sure they will have new ideas and help us to keep the livestock grazing and traditions on Dartmoor and enjoy their involvement on the council.