Aylesbury or Pekin?

What breed are these ducks? I don't know how to tell the difference between the two breeds. They were lying by the edge of the pond in Nine Springs Country Park on the edge of Yeovil. There is an area fenced off for conservation where waterfowl come and go without the aggravation of dog disturbance.

The Aylesbury is named after Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire which used to be an important area for raising these fowl for the table in the 19th Century, especially when the railway became available for their transportation to the markets in London.

The Pekin was introduced from China near the end of the 19th Century. The breed is smaller but the taste is not as good!

Quite a lot has happened on the farm since I last blipped. N and I discovered an aborting cow and had to call T back from a party to examine it in the crush before the vet was summoned during THE football match. The vet was fine about being called out on a Sunday evening and everything resolved itself speedily so he was able to return home for the final few minutes!

Then the contractor called and asked whether we were going to cut the grass for silage. A difficult decision because of the wet weather, the grass is getting old, the fields may be too wet for the heavy trailers laden with grass. After studing various long range weather forecasts we decided to go for it as the cattle need new grazing and have nowhere to go while the silage grass is still standing. T started to mow the grass at 3 pm yesterday and finally came indoors to bed at 2 am this morning.

Today he prepared the silage pit and then it started to rain! By the time I returned from Yeovil in the afternoon the contracting team were hard at it driving like bats out of hell bringing in the grass and it has stopped raining! Whether they will finish tonight or work on into the night is anybody's question - just keep out of their way!