More stories on Baby Animals
Nov 14
Meet Mark, our Dairy Herdsman
Posted in Organic Farming, Livestock, Baby Animals, Farming Techniques, Duchy Originals Products, Organic Food by David Wilson
I've been the Duchy Home Farm dairy herd manager for two years. It's my job is to make sure we're producing the best quality for our Duchy Originals Milk and to ensure that our Ayrshire cows and calves are looked after to the highest possible standards. The average life of a conventional dairy cow is less than five years while the average age of our Ayrshire dairy cows is nearly twice that. This is because our cows produce about half as much milk as Holsteins and so are put under a lot less stress. Cows are not machines! Each of our cows has a name which starts with the prefix Duchy so, for example, we have Duchy Buttermilk, Duchy Daisy. Each cow also has a pedigree certificate and passport with a number which must correlate to the cow's ear tag number - this means that we have complete traceability of all our animals. Click on read more to hear about Mark's typical day...
Jul 31
Little Boar, Big Boar
Posted in Organic Farming, Livestock, Baby Animals by David Wilson
The other day one of our young Tamworth boars (a male pig) thought he'd jump over a fence and get in with one of our older boars. Sadly the older boar, four years old, twice the size of the younger boar and with tusks, was not happy to receive an unexpected visitor.
Jun 22
Oink Oink - Piglets Have Arrived!
Posted in Livestock, Baby Animals, Organic Food by David Wilson
We've recently seen the arrival of nine piglets which are adorable! They shriek like mad and you just want to pick them up, but they are very fast. The sow has had a couple of litters and nine piglets is about the average number, although we have had 14 piglets in the past.
Jun 13
Milk Fever
Posted in Livestock, Baby Animals by David Wilson
The last few late spring calves have been born in the dairy herd. There will be no more now until late summer. Every cow has to have a calf each year in order to produce milk, and we have 180 dairy cows in the herd. The reality of life on the farm means sometimes cows are ill. A few days ago we had one cow with Milk Fever. This happens around calving time when a cow gets very low blood calcium and can become comatose.
May 28
Lambs, Alpacas and Pronking!
Posted in Organic Farming, Livestock, Baby Animals, Farming Techniques, The Weather by David Wilson
We've almost finished lambing now and luckily haven't lost any lambs to foxes which I'm pleased about. We normally lose a few each year but this lambing season, for the first time, we borrowed two Alpaca (which look like mini Llamas) from a neighbour to deter foxes. They are intimidating animals and if you go into the field with a dog they are very defensive in the way they strut around.
May 16
Lambing at Home Farm
Posted in Livestock, Baby Animals by David Wilson
In the last week 400 lambs have been born! It's a very symbolic Spring picture. Ken, the shepherd, gets tired at this time of year as he checks up on the lambs first thing in the morning and last thing at night.
May 8
Sunbathing pigs
Posted in Organic Farming, Livestock, Baby Animals, Farming Techniques, The Weather by David Wilson
Animal welfare rates very highly with an organic system. The pigs, for example, have to be kept outside and here at Home Farm they are given plenty of space for grazing. On a sunny day they really enjoy lying out in the sunshine and sunbathing. Pigs are intelligent animals and if they are not able to fulfil their instinctive desires then they tend to go stir-crazy!
Home Farm People - Catherine Pyne, Home Farm Box Scheme Manager
Fred Hobday, 30th Dec 2008 said:
i live in north Dorset and would like to know where I can buy Nicola potatoes.thank you
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