Holidays in the country

A farm holiday can jointly be a nature holiday as they are intertwined. All those thick hedgerows are home to a multitude of creepy crawlies. Take a box and small brush you can gently sweep a mini-zoo into your box to study with the children.

Some farms that have several cottages to rent for holidays may have nature corners with tame small animals for children to stroke or nature trails that children can follow to discover various plants, animals, birds and natural features.

Ploughing by GPS

A GPS system has been devised that can be used to control ploughing. The GPS driven device can be programmed to set a course to plough a field in dead straight lines irrespective of the tractor driver's eye. The driver can sit back and relax whilst the tractor ploughs up and down.

The same technology can be applied to distributing fertiliser and the machine can be programmed to give deficient soils more and other patches less. This saves on the amount of seed and fertilizer used.

Cows take themselves home to be milked

Cows will take themselves back to the milking shed and allow themselves to be milked by robots. This reduces manpower and when the cows are milked is left up to them.

There is a treat incentive in going to be milked and the cows are happy to do co-operate.

The robots are fitted with sensors that can check for mastitis and will automatically record the amount of milk that each cow produces.

The cost of the robotic milking systems are only viable for huge herds of several hundred or thousand cows. Until then, farmers will need to spend lengthy hours milking their herds.

One advantage of a manual hands on approach is that farmers may spot sickness or injury that robotic sensors may miss. There is still nothing quite like the human eye.

Self catering holidays on farms

There are lots of country cottages and farmhouses to rent. Farmers were given subsidies to convert existing farm buildings to holiday lettings. Farm holidays are especially popular with families who have young children that would still be enthralled by feeding animals and learning about life on a farm and the various farm worker's roles. Things may not be quite a clear cut as they used to be milk maids and tractor drivers, there is a minimal workforce but still interesting all the same.