The Archers spoilers thread #11: Can't wait for 7.02pm? Join us here!

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

Spoilers thread for The Archers on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds. All Archers listeners are welcome here, whether you post on our main Archers thread or not. There's just one rule: please keep all spoiler-related discussion in this thread and do not spill the beans on the main Archers thread.

We usually add the BBC teasers and cast lists for forthcoming episodes as they become available, plus the Radio Times and Daily Mail previews when possible. Feel free to add anything else you come across, e.g. cast news, scriptwriter tweets!

My local vet would do this at the drop of a hat and then excitedly hand me a bill for £700.00.

And what kind of vet nurse would do the non specific scans, on a Tuesday lunchtime, but be specifically on the lookout for an entirely smooth edged-ring with which a 50 something woman was obviously about to propose to her non- resident 30 something girlfriend? A girlfriend by whom she was consistently ignored, when she got in from work, exhausted from a long commute, and expected to cook supper on her girlfriend's day off, and whose over -indulged daughter she had previously been reluctant to take on? Not sure if that sentence makes grammatical sense...

Haha fair enough! You would have to ring up for an appointment though, wouldn't you? And there would be someone else in the waiting room. How does a vet practice support 2 vets and 2 nurses, when the place is empty and everyone working there spends most of their time swanning around the countryside? Well, by doing £700 worth of scans on demand I suppose.

(I just remembered when Jakob was personally visiting all the local livery yards to warn people about a firework display. Lol)

It wasn't Josh wot did it, was it.

Maybe the visitor to Brookfield will be a kitchen designer booked by Pipistelle who have assumed they'll be taking over the farmhouse.

It's funny how Josh gets blamed for cattle breakouts.

Last time it wasn't his fault.

I wonder whether it really is this time.

It wasn't. I'm sure of it. Esme makes a decision she may live to regret…

It did sound terribly like the kind of thing that does happen to people who annoy George.

But wtf did he turn up at 4.00? Round here morning milking is between 8.00 and 9.30. I'm surrounded by dairy farms, we know when roads are likely to be blocked (in the brighter weather when the beasts are outside).

oops, maybe wrong thread. I'll leave it here but copy it over.

According to Yeo Valley, https://help.yeovalley.co.uk/hc/en-gb/articles/16702141122077-How-often-do-you-milk-your-cows millking might be at around 4:30 am and 4pm.

Other sources answering the same question, "what time are cows milked in the morning uk" offer "Since they need to be milked every twelve hours, 5am and 5pm", and "In the morning our cows are up and about early – coming in for the first milking at 4:30am."

What surprised me is if they were not in the barn at this time of year. Or were they and the gate they barged open was from the barn into the yard?

Milking at 5 am seems early but 8am seems very late. George turned up early because he knew the cows would be loose. They were, or should that be weren't, in winter housing.

We won't hear more about the cows next week.

Amber slapped George within days of procreating with him.

The proposal from Stella was for succession SL purposes only. She'll need to rehome Cleo if she lives with Pip and Fat Rosie.

I'd be looking to rehome Pip ... underground.

Some dairy cows are milked 3 times a day, and cows usually come in to be milked of their own accord.

Different in Ireland. Unknown to start before 7.00, and a shorter than 12 hour working day is usual.

We produce a lot of milk.

www.agriland.ie/farming-news/reviewing-your-evening-milking-start-time-during-the-mid-season/

George said they'd got out of their 'winter housing ' so I assumed a barn.

Thanks! I missed that. Surprising if Josh managed to knock a barn door off its hinges without noticing he'd done it, I feel.

In my area milking is done early, around 4.30 -5am.

The winter housing will be in an open sided shed (livestock need fresh air) with gates, not a barn door, so probably not beyond the realms of possibility that Josh knocked a hinge. However dairy cows are usually quite contented beasts, chewing their cud and dozing at night, so seems odd they were lively enough to be pushing a gate at 3am.

"The cows have got out!" seems a bit suss all round, really, but perhaps last week's writer (Sarah McDonald Hughes) doesn't know much about dairy cows?

Were the cows described as a particular breed at some point? Maybe that breed is more nervy? Maybe one of them was frightened by a mouse and all the others panicked as a result? (Clutching at straws here.)

I think they are Guersneys, or Ayrshires - a traditional breed not noted for being flighty, unless they’ve been unsettled by all the different people handling them since the death of Esme’s father, who appears to have kept himself to himself.

I think they are Jerseys. They're docile. They would be unlikely to try to escape. Cows tend to head to the milking parlour at milking time anyway.
Farmyards and farmhouse gardens usually have gates.

Thinking back, I am fairly sure they were said to be Jerseys. Just as well those are docile, with one total amateur and one person with minimal experience looking after them.

Mind you, they didn't sound all that docile when they were ramping about scaring Esme in the early hours.

I have a feeling, though only a feeling, that there were said to be sixty of them?

They wouldn't have been ramping about scaring Esme in the early hours. They'd have stayed in the housing.

Imaginary or fictional cows might party hard in the wee hours. Probably been eating the wrong sort of grass.

Maybe they knew it was milking time and were just being helpful?

All I know of cattle farming is that an ex-boyfriend of mine, not a son of the soil by any stretch of the imagination, subsequently married a woman cattle farmer, the "golden child" who had inherited the lot at the expense of her siblings. Think Pip, but without the charm (yes, I jest). Some years and three children later - and well on the way to divorce - he went to the GP for some reason and the GP questioned his physical fitness, in the sense of strength. When he claimed to be very physically strong the GP stood up and said "Okay, push me over then!" So, having checked that there was a chair immediately behind the GP, he gave him a gentle (to him) shove and down he went!

Speaking of which, I was in a shop earlier and saw someone who looked like a familiar face from decades ago looking at me. I pretended I hadn't recognised him and left the shop empty handed.

Pip without the charm?

Note to self: Do not venture to the supermarket off the by-pass again.

Well, yes, and see my comment upthread that perhaps SMcDH doesn't know a whole lot about dairy cattle.

But (and this is a serious question) how does it come about that dairy cows are in the main docile, pleasant creatures, but dairy bulls have a reputation for ferocious aggression, so much so that very few farmers keep a bull rather than relying on AI sperm? It can't be the breed; is it just the sex of the animal?

@AskingQuestionsAllTheTime , it depends on several factors like the breed and whether the bull has been socialised.

Cows can be dangerous if there are calves.

Bulls can be very expensive. You'd not be wanting to use the same bull for cows fathered by him...

Perhaps?

My fellow 'spoilers' seem to be speaking in riddles today.

ooo maybe someone is going to be tragically tramped by a dairy herd! Fingers crossed it's George