Our calving season has been long, and our farm manager John has been stoic in his management of Elmore’s maternity ward. Contrary to a usual farm setup, the longhorn's are free range over 410 acres.
Mammals in the wild will find somewhere sheltered, safe, and unobserved, to birth their young and, naturally, the longhorns do the same. This means that calves may be born and stashed anywhere on the estate – a combination of careful detective work and time spent calf hunting ensues every time a new one arrives, so that they can be welfare checked. We don't know exactly when they will be born, as that depends when mum was 'served' by the bull, so John relies on his years of experience as a farmer to watch their behaviour when they are close to giving birth.
So far this year we have had seven healthy calves: Zooey; followed by Zephyr and Zabrina, who were born in a storm back in April and more recently Zeus, Zuzia, Zebedee and Zulu. This year's calves all have names that begin with the letter 'Z' as the Longhorn Cattle Society chooses a letter for the year.
The badger clan has also expanded with at least two new cubs, seen on the camera traps with their noses to the ground, foraging for food. Our clan has consisted of two leucistic (white) and two striped adults – the cubs seen this year are traditionally stripy. Additional entrances have been dug recently at the sett, we assume to accommodate the growing family. From setts to warrens, you cannot walk or drive the land without seeing a flurry of baby rabbits and hares darting from the fields to the hedgerows, their tiny tails bobbing in their wake.
We are very proud of our abundance of red list birds resident at Elmore, particularly when they choose to breed here. This year we have seen hopeful signs that our curlews have decided to nest here. Curlews are suffering a massive decline in breeding populations due to over farming and loss of their favourite nesting site, a scrape.
The new insect life has been quite impressive, with entire patches of nettles heavy with larvae. Walking the land, the ground is alive with fluttering wings and the air humming with bees. Dragonflies hover over the margins of the lake where recently frogs and toads spawned.
If there were one word to describe Elmore in June it would be, unequivocally, alive.
By Briony Cobb, Nature, Ecology and Wellness Manager at Rewild Things.
Pictured are Zabrina (left) born in mid-April and Zebedee born last week - you can see from this how quickly the calves grow!