Monday, 1 August 2011
More ram power
Roly has just got home having been to buy a new Charolais ram for our flock. We are going to call him 'Ted' and he thinks he is the bees knees!
He is spending the next few weeks in the orchard until it is time to meet his lady's in three weeks time. He joins a team of 8 rams (5 Texel, 1 Charolais, 1 Hartline, 1 Lleyn), where he will be replacing Harvey our other Charolais ram who is getting a bit of an old boy.
We will keep you posted on his time with us.
From Camilla, Roly, Molly, Belle and Boris
Monday, 18 July 2011
New team member!
Something really exciting has happened today . . . we have bought a tractor, a 100hp John Deere 6400 with a loader to pick up hay and straw bales to feed the sheep in the winter, plus loads of other jobs that we haven't told the tractor yet!We purchased the tractor from farming friends in Gloucestershire, Penelope Bossom and Jake Freestone at Overbury Farms. We drove over in the car and Roly drove it back, 18.5mph = 3hours 15 minutes!
We need a name for the tractors so suggestions please!
Bye for now
Camilla, Roly, Molly, Boris and Belle
Sunday, 10 July 2011
Field trip to Norfolk
As hard as it is to leave the farm it is so important, not only to have a break, but also to see our friends, learn from other farmers and get new ideas.
We have just returned from a weekend to Norfolk, where we visited Tom Goucher an old college friend of Roly's, they both went to Harper Adams Agricultural College. Tom farms with his parents and brother, and like us are tenant farmers, but their produce is very different and varied - wheat, barley, rye, suger beet, potatoes, onions, carrots (photo below) and parsley, which we were lucky enough to see being harvested (video below).
From Tom's we went on to see Nick and Susie Emmett, and their dog Moss (photo below). Nick is our shepherd mentor, and Roly is always on the phone to him! Susie is a partner of Green Shoots Productions, Susie, amongst other things, has helped and inspired hundreds of farmers across the world to host farm visits. It was great to catch up and we always learn so much from Nick and Susie, with Nick planting a few ideas in Rolys head . . . this time 'out door lambing'. We lamb our flock indoors, which although is nice for us when it is raining, there are many disadvantages, so, much research to be done and we will report back!
Bye for now
Camilla, Roly, Molly, Boris and Belle
We have just returned from a weekend to Norfolk, where we visited Tom Goucher an old college friend of Roly's, they both went to Harper Adams Agricultural College. Tom farms with his parents and brother, and like us are tenant farmers, but their produce is very different and varied - wheat, barley, rye, suger beet, potatoes, onions, carrots (photo below) and parsley, which we were lucky enough to see being harvested (video below).
From Tom's we went on to see Nick and Susie Emmett, and their dog Moss (photo below). Nick is our shepherd mentor, and Roly is always on the phone to him! Susie is a partner of Green Shoots Productions, Susie, amongst other things, has helped and inspired hundreds of farmers across the world to host farm visits. It was great to catch up and we always learn so much from Nick and Susie, with Nick planting a few ideas in Rolys head . . . this time 'out door lambing'. We lamb our flock indoors, which although is nice for us when it is raining, there are many disadvantages, so, much research to be done and we will report back!
Bye for now
Camilla, Roly, Molly, Boris and Belle
Friday, 8 July 2011
Mowing grass for hay . . . quickly!
There was a lot of noise on the farm this week....we have weaned some of the lambs from their mummies! The noise was definitely coming from the ewes rather than the lambs, which was surprising I always think that the ewes would be pretty relieved to have a bit of a break by now. The sheep calendar is amazing as we are already thinking of getting the ewes ready to receive the rams in about 2 months time. The ewes need to be 'dried off' which means they stop producing milk and all the energy they are consuming from the grass is going directly into their condition.
Other news is that all our hay is in! We have been so blessed with the weather, we needed 5 days of dry and we eventually got it last week. Stuart our contractor came one evening and mowed all the fields in about 4 hours it was incredible, see the video footage. Molly and I were watching and the speed the tractor went was amazing! Molly was transfixed and didn't seem to bat an eyelid as the big noisy tractor approached! Stuart came back and tedded (turned the cut grass to maximise dryness) and then baled and then Roly spent all of Monday loading up the trailer and bringing the bales in, very satisfying.
The rams had their 'MOT' this week - we look at their feet, check their teeth and generally have a good going over to make sure their condition is good, and everything is in working order. We will need to change at least two of our rams, the Lleyn and maybe one of the Texels, to ensure that they are not put with any of their daughters as we keep all our own replacements (ewe lambs which we will breed from next year).
Molly is almost 6 months old, we can hardly believe it! She was christened on Sunday which was very special and true to form clashed with a major farming event...haymaking...but as I've already mentioned, we were lucky with the weather which meant Roly could have the day off.
Our other news is that we are now on Twitter@camillaandroly! So take a look at follow us and we'll let you know about our latest lamb offers and up to the minute news from the farm.
More soon!
Camilla, Roly, Molly, Boris and Belle
Other news is that all our hay is in! We have been so blessed with the weather, we needed 5 days of dry and we eventually got it last week. Stuart our contractor came one evening and mowed all the fields in about 4 hours it was incredible, see the video footage. Molly and I were watching and the speed the tractor went was amazing! Molly was transfixed and didn't seem to bat an eyelid as the big noisy tractor approached! Stuart came back and tedded (turned the cut grass to maximise dryness) and then baled and then Roly spent all of Monday loading up the trailer and bringing the bales in, very satisfying.
The rams had their 'MOT' this week - we look at their feet, check their teeth and generally have a good going over to make sure their condition is good, and everything is in working order. We will need to change at least two of our rams, the Lleyn and maybe one of the Texels, to ensure that they are not put with any of their daughters as we keep all our own replacements (ewe lambs which we will breed from next year).
Molly is almost 6 months old, we can hardly believe it! She was christened on Sunday which was very special and true to form clashed with a major farming event...haymaking...but as I've already mentioned, we were lucky with the weather which meant Roly could have the day off.
Our other news is that we are now on Twitter@camillaandroly! So take a look at follow us and we'll let you know about our latest lamb offers and up to the minute news from the farm.
More soon!
Camilla, Roly, Molly, Boris and Belle
Wednesday, 15 June 2011
Rain, hay, weaning . . . and three legs!
It was Open Farm Sunday last weekend, a national farm open day organised by LEAF (Linking Environment and Farming) who I work for. Having not rained for 3 months, it then decided to all day on Sunday! Our landlords the Earth Trust had worked really hard to put on a great event, but sadly the weather put a lot of people off coming. We had heard other farms still had great events despite the weather.
The rain will certainly help the grass to grow but we now need some dry days for haymaking! We have a contractor on stand by who is ready to go when we think its safe to do so, if we are unlucky with the weather then cutting the grass for haylage is an option. Haylage is produced through cutting good quality grass - but instead of allowing it to dry completely it is baled when the grass has wilted and the moisture content reduced to about 40 - 45%. The bales are then compressed to half their original size, packed and heat sealed into plastic bags. Natural fermentation inside the bag preserves the grass as haylage - which retains 90% of the feed value of fresh grass. So its not a bad alternative really, only that we are then left with all the plastic to recycle, which is an extra job!
The rain also means that the lambs are more susceptible to build up of a heavier worm burden inside their intestines as the warm, damp conditions provides an ideal breeding ground for the worm larvae in the grass fields. We use a microscope to monitor the egg count in their poo. If we find over a certain number of eggs this means we will need treat the lambs. Roly spent all of Monday doing this and yesterday treated the lambs whose number of eggs justified it. This approach means that we are only treating them if it is absolutely necessary, which obviously is important for welfare reasons to avoid resistance to the treatment, the time it takes to bring them in and administer the treatment and finally, financially too, as it is expensive!
Our new season lamb is now well underway and we are about to start selecting some lambs for market from our March flock. They have thrived during the amazing weather and will continue to do so now that the grass is growing too. It is about this time that the ewes begin to feel a bit fed up! Having bigger lambs which they are still supporting is hard work, particularly for those ewes who are raising 3. So weaning won't be that far away, weaning is when we take them off their Mum's so they are just eating grass.
Molly is now 5 months old and is going through her own weaning process! It won't be long before she is tasting her first bit of lamb!
Belle is working hard and at the moment on 3 legs! Poor Belle, she hurt her foot, we think it is from jumping over a fence. She has been on a course of antibiotics and seems much better and is putting some weight on it now. We can't afford for her to have a sick note!
Camilla, Roly, Molly, Boris and Belle
The rain will certainly help the grass to grow but we now need some dry days for haymaking! We have a contractor on stand by who is ready to go when we think its safe to do so, if we are unlucky with the weather then cutting the grass for haylage is an option. Haylage is produced through cutting good quality grass - but instead of allowing it to dry completely it is baled when the grass has wilted and the moisture content reduced to about 40 - 45%. The bales are then compressed to half their original size, packed and heat sealed into plastic bags. Natural fermentation inside the bag preserves the grass as haylage - which retains 90% of the feed value of fresh grass. So its not a bad alternative really, only that we are then left with all the plastic to recycle, which is an extra job!
The rain also means that the lambs are more susceptible to build up of a heavier worm burden inside their intestines as the warm, damp conditions provides an ideal breeding ground for the worm larvae in the grass fields. We use a microscope to monitor the egg count in their poo. If we find over a certain number of eggs this means we will need treat the lambs. Roly spent all of Monday doing this and yesterday treated the lambs whose number of eggs justified it. This approach means that we are only treating them if it is absolutely necessary, which obviously is important for welfare reasons to avoid resistance to the treatment, the time it takes to bring them in and administer the treatment and finally, financially too, as it is expensive!
Our new season lamb is now well underway and we are about to start selecting some lambs for market from our March flock. They have thrived during the amazing weather and will continue to do so now that the grass is growing too. It is about this time that the ewes begin to feel a bit fed up! Having bigger lambs which they are still supporting is hard work, particularly for those ewes who are raising 3. So weaning won't be that far away, weaning is when we take them off their Mum's so they are just eating grass.
Molly is now 5 months old and is going through her own weaning process! It won't be long before she is tasting her first bit of lamb!
Belle is working hard and at the moment on 3 legs! Poor Belle, she hurt her foot, we think it is from jumping over a fence. She has been on a course of antibiotics and seems much better and is putting some weight on it now. We can't afford for her to have a sick note!
Camilla, Roly, Molly, Boris and Belle
Wednesday, 11 May 2011
Finally...the last lambs!
They arrived yesterday and are already looking strong and well as you can see from the photograph. A proud mum, but she has kept us waiting!At the same time as going to check on her, Roly thought it was time to give Molly her first shepherding lesson, you can see her concentrating very hard and taking it all in. It won't be long before she has her own shepherds crook....
We had some very welcome rain at the end of last week, about an inch, just enough to tide us over but we do need more, the cracks in the ground are getting wider. We are just about managing on the grass we have to move the sheep around. We have learnt during this dry spell that the sheep do very well on the grass due to it having higher dry matter content due to the lack of moisture. However, this cannot be sustained as new growth is needed to keep up with the grazing and this can only happen with rainfall!
Our new season lamb is picking up now so please come and visit us at the markets this month and try some for yourself. We are butterflying some legs of lamb now all ready for the barbeques and our delicious burgers are always a favourite.
Despite the lack of rain, the countryside is still alive with colour and the butterflies are loving the nettles and cow parsley. We have seen a lot of orange tip butterflies this year.
Brian our shearer is booked up to come and shear the remainder of the flock in a weeks time - the rams, the ewes which lambed in January and our ewe lambs (replacements).
The lambing sheds have all been cleared and the manure is in a big heap waiting to be spread on the arable fields here at the Earth Trust. Sheds which are so alive with activity for two months now seem so quiet and empty!
More soon
Camilla, Roly, Molly, Boris and Belle
Sunday, 1 May 2011
Happy days!
But with a hint of anxiety as we check the weather forecast and still see no sign of rain! The grass is ok for now but soon it will begin to be a problem if we don't get rain. But its wonderful to be enjoying this amazing sunshine while it lasts and watching the lambs grow. Oxford farmers market on Thursday will be the first market with our new season lamb, so the last of the hogget (last years lamb) has finished and we are starting the cycle once more.
With the warm weather brings the threat of fly strike which I know I have talked about before. We have been through the whole flock now and treated them with a prevention spray which protects them for up to 16 weeks. It is always a relief to get this job done as there is nothing worse for the sheep if they are unlucky to get strike.
Our Easter lamb trade was really strong and we've had lovely feedback from our customers about how delicious the lamb was and it is a great feeling thinking of all the families sitting down for Easter lunch and enjoying our lamb.
Molly is doing really well, and is almost 4 months old now, she smiles and giggles (particularly at Roly as you can see in the photo) and seems very content coming out with us and checking all the sheep. It won't be long until she has her very own shepherds crook! Her big sisters Jessica and Arabelle are coming to see us this weekend, I think they will be amazed by how much Molly and the lambs have grown.
We were tempted to paint the sheep red, blue and white in honour of the happy couple and to prevent any rustling....we were very interested to read another farmer spraying his sheep orange to prevent them being stolen!
More soon, it won't be long until we'll be thinking about haymaking...
Camilla, Roly, Molly, Boris and Belle
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