1 2 WELCOME to the April / May 2021 edition of the Parish News. We hope all our readers remain well, and like us are looking forward to the end of lockdown. We still need to keep vigilant and think of others, thus ensuring we do our utmost to keep the virus from spreading, as we emerge from the pandemic restrictions. THE PARISH NEWS EDITORIAL TEAM Allerthorpe Penny Simmons 303832 [email protected] Mark Stageman 303862 [email protected] Margaret Murray [email protected] Barmby Moor Jackie Jeffery 303651 [email protected] Gail Turner 380250 [email protected] Fangfoss and Bolton Julia Cockman 369662 [email protected] Yapham-cum-Meltonby Elaine Stubbings 304773 [email protected] Thornton and Melbourne Rebecca Metcalfe 318562 [email protected] We welcome all articles but reserve the right to shorten or amend them. Whilst we are happy to publish unedited articles, in the spirit of freedom of speech, any views expressed are not necessarily those of the Parish News Editorial Team. 3 SPRING TIME AND LAMBING Following a brief warm spell, it really feels like spring is in the air. While our small animal hospital is busy at all times of year, this is an exceptionally busy time for our farm animal team. Both lambing and calving are coming thick and fast. Indeed, our own small flock of sheep at home started with their lambing early in March, with one of our favourites, Thelma, delivering triplets. At least we now know the tup we used this year (Freddie) works! Farmers prefer springtime for lambing and calving as a rule, the improving weather and the greater availability of grazing make it a better time for young to be reared outside. Sheep are known as short day breeders, as they begin to cycle when day length begins to reduce, and their melatonin levels increase. Cycles in both cows and sheep can be manipulated using various hormones and, for sheep, by altering light levels. We often synchronise our sheep to ensure our small flock lamb when Laura and I are off work, and not ourselves on call! Large farms often synchronise groups of cows and sheep to ensure tight efficient calving and lambing periods. Cows can calve all year round, as is often the case in dairy herds. Our area tends to be more populated with suckler herds rather than dairy herds. Suckler herds tend to calve more often in the springtime. Gestation periods in cows average around 283 days, and for sheep the period is more like 152 days. Dystocia is the term given to a difficult birth, and indeed the reason we as vets are often called to attend and assist the birth. Often with a fair 4 amount of patience, things can be manoeuvred around to ensure that a safe birth can occur naturally. Sometimes, no matter what is tried, it ends up in a surgical intervention, known as a caesarean. Both cows and sheep can have these procedures performed on the farm. For a cow, a caesarean is performed on a standing patient. For a sheep, the ewe is on her side (lateral recumbency) for the caesarean. Local anaesthetics, epidurals, and even light sedatives are used to ensure the patient feels nothing and is relaxed whilst we remove the calf / lamb through 'the side door' as we often say. A caesarean often takes around half an hour to an hour, start to finish, depending on the facilities on farm and also the compliance of the patient. Both natural births and caesarean sections are always really rewarding experiences, and it is worth the lack of sleep to deliver a healthy lamb or calf. Hopefully, as we are all gradually allowed out more as lockdowns ease, you will be able to see a few lambs and calves out at grass enjoying some spring sunshine. Please be respectful of livestock at all times, and where public footpaths cross farmers’ fields ensure your dogs are on leads. Andrew Moll BVetMed MRCVS 5 STAND BY FOR BARMBY BIRDS As I write, spring is quickly coming upon us and the garden birds are getting ready for their breeding season. The house sparrows that dash in and out of their pyracantha fortress in our back garden are beginning to pick up straws. Robins are making a commotion in the hedges, and blue tits must be on the lookout for likely nest sites. I certainly hope they notice the new box I have put up in a reliable position on our back wall. Last year, at a Barmby Moor Wildlife Areas meeting, David Vass kindly made a donation so that we could fit out a new box with a miniature camera. I have been rigging it up so that we can broadcast what happens for everyone to see. I have made a weatherproof false back for the new birdbox. Nestled inside is a Raspberry Pi computer and a miniature no-IR camera. The camera is similar to those found in older mobile phones but is without an infra-red filter. When I illuminate the dim interior of the birdbox with an infra-red LED, scavenged from an old TV remote, you can see that all is pretty clear. Birds do not see infra-red, so the box will appear dark and inviting to them. We are looking forward to seeing what happens. My next task is to connect some software to take regular photos, or even video, and post them on the web for everyone to view. Stand by for an update on the Community Facebook page when this is ready, and the hoped-for nest is under way. Wish us luck! Clive Jeffery 6 7 NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH Lockdown rolls on but human nature stays the same! There will always be a criminally inclined minority ready for a quick buck when they see a potential victim, and especially when so many of us are vulnerable. Nowadays the means to commit crime are many and various – person to person like pickpockets and burglars - but the increase in crime is most marked in the number of ‘scams’, by phone or online. These cowardly creatures can hide far from any chance of detection or consequent punishment - but increasingly the forces of good are catching up with them, and here the public can help by contacting Action Fraud or many similar organisations as soon as possible after the scam has been perpetrated. We can also help ourselves by not giving any details to someone you do not know on the phone or online. In fact, if you are contacted by anyone you do not know, stop the call at once. If that person is genuine, they will try again and will not mind. As we are shut in for most of the time, we feel like sitting ducks, but we can keep our eyes and ears open for anyone who looks suspicious in our area. This applies particularly to our farming community who are losing valuable equipment and, worse still, livestock and dogs. There are increasing reports of cyber- attacks against farm businesses as agriculture becomes ever more technical and complex. The NFU/NCSC guidance identifies the main digital aspects that threaten farms - from computers to automated machinery, security cameras and smartphones. From now on, as the pace of gardening increases into spring, everyone needs to make expensive items and equipment secure. Even catalytic converters on cars are being targeted by criminals. 8 Finally, be aware of Covid-19 scams, despicable as they are. All vaccines are free, so if anyone gets as far under your guard as to scam your details – well, think before you leap. Here is to better times and nicer people around us. The last year has laid bare the good, the bad and the best in us all. Gail Turner Daily Rainfall 2021 30 25 20 15 10 Total January = 104.5 mm or 5 mm of rainfall 4.11 inches 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1011 12 13141516 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 2728 29 30 31 Total February = 59.5 mm or January February 2.34 inches Total Year 2020 = 164 mm or We have to go back to 2004 to have had so much rain in January 6.46 inches Recorded in Allerthorpe 9 FARMING NEWS The crops sown last autumn seem to have overwintered reasonably well, albeit some small areas of flooding and insect damage have not survived. The fertiliser that has been applied is having an effect, and the fields have greened up well. We now have a varying amount of different crops to sow in the spring, the main one being barley for the malt used in beer making. We also grow potatoes, carrots, peas, and turf, all of which need irrigation in the dry summer months. The water comes from a “catch-pit” which is really a large hole dug in the ground by excavator which fills up to the water table level during the winter months when not being used. We will still have a field of fallow, however as it has a large blackgrass infestation and is still very wet underneath it will need subsoiling in the dry summer months. This will enable us to make a timely sowing of winter wheat in September. The mothballed bioethanol plant on the banks of the Humber in Hull is to reopen again later this year. The plant has not been used since 2018 due to an oversupply of European and global ethanol. The factory can process more than 1 million tonnes of wheat a year, sourced from farms within a 50-mile radius.