Farm Update - February 2022

It’s February at last, after what felt like a very long January! The sun is shining and dare I say it but I see some signs of spring … buds on the trees and snow drops blooming. Chances are we will have another cold snap before proper spring arrives, but we will take the sunshine, blue skies and signs of new life whilst it’s here.

The last few weeks have been all about labour preparations for both our cows and sheep! When we last emailed, we were waiting to have the pregnant ewes scanned to find out how many we were expecting. If you remember we were hoping for approximately 200% (2 lambs per ewe) or just under. We had another incredibly high scan rate this year of 219% - with 3 quads, 22 triplets, 67 twins, and 7 singles due to make an appearance in April. These will keep us on our toes, but the ewes are looking in great condition so hopefully they will manage their lambs well. Over the next couple of months we will be looking to give additional nutrition to those expecting triplets and quads, making sure their lambs get all that they need to grow healthily and the ewe maintains her condition. Meanwhile we will be making sure that those expecting singles don’t take on too much resulting in huge lambs and associated birthing complications. It’s all a balancing act that we are learning as we go!

The cattle have all had a pre calving health check – a weigh in, general check over, and a little haircut. We always clip a strip of hair down their backs when they are in the sheds as this prevents them from sweating,  reducing the chance of them getting pneumonia. We were taken a bit by surprise this weekend when one of our heifers decided to calve a month early … not only that, but the calf was backwards. Obviously it was the one weekend that I wasn’t here (sods law!), but our fab employee Alex held the fort with the support of my Dad and our vet Dilwyn from Bridge Vets. The calf was delivered alive and whilst he is tiny, not feeding, and not up and about, he has survived his first night which is a huge relief. We have been tube feeding him colostrum and glucose to try and get him warm and give him energy, but he is very bloated and full of amniotic fluid so we can’t give too much at once. The Mum doesn’t have huge amounts of milk and without the calf suckling she is at risk of producing even less. We will keep drawing milk from her to encourage milk production in the hope the calf will be able to feed independently soon.

The seed for our arable crops has now arrived on farm reading for drilling using the new direct drill we bought last year. If it stays dry the beans will go in towards the end of February/beginning of March, with the oats and barley being drilled in late March. We are preying for a more successful arable crop this year, as for many reasons it was pretty disastrous for us last year! We are keeping everything crossed that weather, ground conditions, combine breakdowns, and haulage issues are all on our side in 2022! On that note, we have been stripping back the combine and getting it serviced ready for harvest. A couple of replacement parts and we are hoping she will be up and running for another year.

In our spare time (haha!) we’ve been starting to get the ground work done on our vegetable garden. We moved in to our house 3 years ago now and the area we are using was still a weedy bit of waste land. Cue a digger, a monster roll of membrane, some hardcore and a whacker plate and it’s starting to look pretty tidy. Now we need to decide on the final lay out for the raised beds … what’s the betting it takes another 3 years to finish it?

Best Wishes

James and Fi