We all take for granted modern communications technology. Instant contact is now the norm until something goes wrong, like the early January storms dropping a tree through the telephone line in the middle of a field about a mile from us.

Robyn Hulme

With no e-mails and dead phone lines, the immediate reaction of Mrs H was that I had not paid the bill and that I should ring using our other line (yes, we are a two-line household), to sort out the problem. When this line also proved dead it was obvious that we were then facing a more serious issue than my normal forgetfulness.

I then resorted to the mobile to contact my supplier. Everyone hates automatic answering systems that end up with you talking to a call centre based many thousands of miles away. ‘Nathan’, our customer support operative, helpfully diverted our calls, while promising regular text updates on progress. Over the next week texts arrived randomly day and night assuring me the matter was in hand with the contractors.

This process culminated in a text on January 11 telling us that the fault would be sorted on February 4 because, as an apoplectic Mrs H was informed, application had to be made to the council to close the road to erect a new pole – a very curious decision as the pole was nowhere near a road.

Anyway, happily the very next day, after the distressing text, one lorry and two trucks and innumerable engineers appeared and within four hours we were back in touch with the world – after nine days of silence, but thankfully, 23 days earlier than promised.

On a happier technology note we have now had all our ewes’ pregnancy scanned. This is done by Graham Warner, a specialist scanning contractor and dairy farmer, and his accuracy in both forecasting the number of lambs in each ewe but also the age of each foetus is as amazing as his speed.

Graham, like so many others, received his initial training from the late Richard Chantler who farmed at Presteigne and who, some 30 years ago, was the first person to scan sheep in the world. So we eagerly await 250 lambs in early February and a further 300 in March. These will include hopefully 60 New Zealand Texels about which there will be more next month.

Robyn Hulme, of Pikesend Farm, Ellesmere, is founder of ‘Easyrams’ – Britain’s only NZ Suffolk breeders.