SUMMER is here and how lovely it is after an odd spring — when we were lambing our sheep in April in really high temperatures it just didn't seem right.

In fact the poor old ewes were looking for shade from the trees with no leaves on and I felt they became exhausted at times. Instead of being 'too posh to push' they just seemed 'too hot to push'!

Then the temperature dropped and the cold nights halted the grass growth and made the high moor grazing not very inviting for the cattle which go there from the end of April.

It felt as though we were a month behind with the temperature until recently, but now nature has put itself right as it usually does.

It all seems in the distant past. One just has to be patient, but in the third week in April the cockoo returned to us on time as normal and what a wonderful uplifting sound to hear. 

Lambing actually went well and we were all blessed with a good crop of lambs.

My trusted dogs helped me when asked but my young bitch took a couple of hours off in the second week of lambing for maternity leave to produce three lovely puppies, all of which have now gone to good homes to start their careers.

After lambing and work gets a bit quieter for the dogs. I always take them for an outing to the beach as a thank you to them for their loyal support.

It's always a bit of an adventure for us all as my dogs are not used to being on leads but they get loaded into the Landrover and put on leads when we get to our destination.

Poppa bags in pocket, we all enjoy our outing and constantly laugh at  the collies trying to catch seagulls and rushing into the water. Now there's a diversification idea — one that's needed but probably wouldn't be too popular with some people.

The foals started to be born at the end of March and then stopped for a while during the cold spell.

The mares produce their foals in line with the grass growing season and it's something that none of us can understand, but because they are semi-feral on the moor it must have something to do with living along with nature and no human intervention.

The mares started foaling again in late April when the weather warmed up.

Lots  of the foals will go to the annual drift sale this year, which is on October 8 at Chagford, thanks to the continued support of Rendells auctioneers.

TB still continues to take its toll. Before we sell any cattle (the ministry call them bovine animals) you have to test them for TB, which is a costly process for the farmer and also very time consuming. 

As I have said before, testing is not the cut and dried answer. We wanted to sell some young heifers so we tested them and had a good result so sold the heifers.

A month later the next batch of heifers was ready to sell so we did the same again – we tested them but this time one in the bunch had an inconclusive reading which means that the animal hasn't got TB but it could have.

Basically who knows — so that means everything is put on hold for at least 60 days (two months).

The animal in question has to be put into quarantine before being tested again after the 60 days has expired but the others are in limbo. They passed the test but they can't be sold on the open market and will also have to be tested again after another 60 days — more expense.

That can sometimes lead to cash flow problems and certainly upsets the grazing for all the animals on the farm.

The sale rotation makes way for the next lot of cattle grazing, which has now been stopped, rather like the tail back of lorries if the port at Calais is closed.

Like the inconvenienced lorries, it's a drain on the hauliers' business and with the flow of cattle sales halted it's also a drain on the farmers' business.

The annoying thing is that the inconclusive reading is a mystery because the next time the same animal is tested it could pass. The inconclusive reading could be due to many reasons. It could be the start of TB but also a dirty testing needle used when injecting the animal, stress in the animal, just slightly too much fluid in the injection, or a bad batch of injection and so on. The TB test is not very reliable but one thing is certain — the pain that it gives the farmer is very real.

The whole of the farming community has had  a real struggle with DEFRA this spring with a tight deadline for mapping and form filling on May 15, which in the end had to be extended to June 15 because of DEFRA's incompetence  over the mapping of all the agricultural land throughout the country.

As I have said previously 'we all knew their high powered computer system wasn't going to work' — and it didn't.

If a private business was run in the same sort of way as the government department of DEFRA it just would not survive.

In a funny sort of way I felt like many other farmers do — sorry for the frontline DEFRA operators having to deal with impractical and unachievable ideas dreamt up by some civil servants who haven't got a clue about farming, but expect delivery of such ideas.

The morale in those offices is now so low that nothing gets done and chaos prevails, but we must wait and see if they will deliver their side of the process on time which will be by the end of December  2015 — time will tell! 

June and July are harvesting months — mainly July on the moorland farms.

The thunderstorms have been rather annoying and after a couple of days of really hot, good hay-making weather we are just waiting for a spell of three or four days without rain with hopes of excellent hay.

Just when we see a window we are affected by a thunderstorm, just a day or so short of first class hay and that unexpected rain turns the crop into second class fodder with disappointment within a few hours.

Silage making is less crucial as it doesn't need the length of time to harvest, but you still need good sunshine to make first class silage. Infestation of moles was a particular problem this year in the fields laid up for harvest.

If they are not dealt with and the earth from the mole hills gets into the fodder, particularly in the silage crop, it can become a deadly feed to animals in the form of listeria, which is a bacteria causing death to the animals the silage is fed to.

So not only are moles an annoyance to anyone who loves their garden but they are vermin to farmers.

Road traffic accidents on the open moorland roads continue to rise and we have seen some awful injuries usually resulting in the animal having to be put down after the incident.

The worst case that I had to deal with was a yearling filly that had been hit by a motorist in daylight hours. The shoulder of the filly was shattered and she was left standing beside the road not only with a shattered shoulder but her hoof had been completely taken off by the impact and all she had left was a bloody stump.

She was motionless and in complete shock — how could anyone have done all that damage and not had the decency to report the accident so that the pony could have been helped?

Thankfully a local couple contacted our Dartmoor Commoners Council welfare officer Carla, who is on duty 24 / 7 and we were able to get there quickly.

Sheep attacks by dogs are still a big problem particularly in honeypot areas. This is where the microchipping and DNA of dogs would be a really good help to identify culprits.

Good responsible dog owners, of which there are many, can help us by putting pressure on irresponsible owners with dogs that are out of control by contacting our Dartmoor Commoners welfare officer on 07873 587561.

Carla works closely with the police, so take note of the owner's car number and although I'm having a moan about dogs attacking sheep, if they get away with it then the next time it could be a child that's attacked.

It's a problem we need to give serious thought to and all work together.