Aughton Hall Farm is a dairy farm located in the Lake District of England near Lancaster. They aim for about 80 in milk, although that fluctuates as cows dry off or calve. They also raise all their own replacement stock on the farm and so have many young calves and heifers out in pasture. The dairy cows are out at grass both during the day and at night all summer, and are only out during the day in winter (if the weather is good). The farm also raises 600 turkeys each year. They are all pre-ordered by clients for Christmas dinners and the Clarkes do all of the processing on farm as well.

The farm itself is set on a hill overlooking a beautiful valley, which is bisected by the river Lune. The view from the kitchen is fantastic and the pastures all have gorgeous vistas. I never got tired of looking out over that valley. In the morning, it might be covered with fog so that you would never know it was there, and in the evening, the colors and shadows were always changing.

During my two weeks at the farm, I helped with the morning milking, which started at 7:00, and fed the calves. We usually finished up around 9:00, washed the parlor, and went in for breakfast. In the afternoon, we did various chores around the farm and started the second milking at 4:00. During that milking, I fed all the turkeys and gave them fresh bedding if needed, feed the bull and show heifer, and fed the calves. Once I finished those chores, I helped David finish the milking and washed down the parlor. The evening was free and after "tea" we would watch TV or play pool. I even made cookies several times with their young daughter Lucy.

Westmoorland show - During my first week at the farm, I was able to help the Clarkes prepare their young red holstein heifer, Patsy, for the local agricultural show (very similar to our county fairs). Before the show we did lots of grooming and clipping, and then hoped she didn't get herself dirty the night before. Thankfully she stayed clean and we had a great day at the show. Patsy's class was over early in the day - she took second place - so I had all afternoon to wander around the show.

Lancaster Livestock Auction - Another great experience was the trip to the auction house in Lancaster for their mule gimmer sale (young mixed breed sheep who havn't lambed yet). David bought about 50 sheep to add to his small flock at an avarage price of £28 a head. I was facinated to see how the actioneer knew all the farmers by name and could see signals that seemed invisible to me. David would just twitch his finger and the auctioneer would see it.