Mrs Down's Diary

She has developed super-sensitive hearing, and nanoseconds after the scrape of the door opening she is on her feet, head lowered and bawling.

Straight after that, she has run towards the door to butt your legs and let you know she is there and hungry. But she wasn't.

John was concerned. A couple of days earlier he had found the calf in the silage yard under a fall of silage. Whether it is because it is warm, even in comparison to the yard with its cosy carpet of straw, the calf has taken to lying under the silage face.

The cows' access to the silage is regulated by a bar that is moved forwards every day to allow them to feed but does not permit them to clamber on to or into the silage and spoil or waste it.

Occasionally, if the cows pull the silage from the bottom, it creates an overhang of feed that topples down when it is unbalanced. The calf had been lying at the face when such a fall occurred but fortunately John was able to pull her clear before any harm could be done. Had she got trapped again?

For full feature see West Sussex Gazette February 20