At long last the swallows have arrived.

They have already begun building their nests in the old sheds around the farm yard and it is all  a whirl with their distinctive forked tails and husky birdsong. Spring is well and truly here and summer is also on its way.

These past couple of weeks have been very busy muck spreading, ploughing, fertilising and sowing our spring barley for this year's harvest.

In between all of this we have turned all our dairy cows out to grass. They can still walk back into their barns to help ease them into their new routine.

First thing in the morning we still put out some grass silage for them so that they don't suffer a sudden change in diet which can give them belly ache.

We have also started turning out our young beef cattle and calves now that the weather is more settled.

Before they are let outside they are given a wormer to protect them from any parasites in the soil which could make them ill.

Afterwards the gates are opened and my calves all sprint around the fields with their tails raised high in the air and they blare happily to themselves jumping and playing with one another. After ten minutes or so they all come back to me as if to say "OK, that was fun, now can we come back inside please?"

But I'm a tough loving mother and so they will have to stay outside now until the winter months again. However after a few hours they start sniffing at the ground and take their first bite of fresh grass.

I still feed them a bit of cake and barley straw each day to keep them happy. I keep a close eye on them and I'm pleased to report that there is a lot of tail swishing and lounging in the sun.

Next on the to-do list is planting our plots allocated for the wildlife on the farm. This spring we intend to sow some seed mixes for bees and butterflies with specific nectar and pollen rich species.

And afterwards it is onto preparing the ground for growing maize, one of our conserved winter feeds for our dairy cows.

This entails spreading much of the muck created in the loose straw yards that house the cattle over winter. So we need to clean out all the sheds first and then start spreading it onto the fields.

Our fields love this organic matter, excellent for feeding the worms and other micro organisms within the soil which in turn add fertility and food for the next crop to grow.

I wish you all a happy Easter!