The Latest from Home Farm
May 16
Lambing at Home Farm
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. They lamb outside and in an ideal world most of the ewes have twins. Triplets are not that unusual and in the past we’ve had quads which is difficult for an animal with just two teats! As they lamb outside we have to be very careful of foxes because in the past we’ve lost a lot of lambs this way. This year, for the first time, we’ve borrowed two Alpaca (smaller than Llamas) from a neighbour and put them with the flock. We are determined not to lose any lambs this year and they guard the sheep against foxes and dogs.
May 14
Current crops
Crops in the Spring are affected by two things: temperature and day length. We started sowing the Spring crops the first few days in March. The malting barley (Plumage Archer and Westminster) went in first followed by the Spring oats. The last crop we planted was the mustard in mid-April. The winter wheat is not very happy because it has been cold. The rye is the most advanced crop, about nine inches high; with the long days it grows quickly and will go up to 6 ft. We start harvesting the rye in late July, early August, and we go straight through with the wheat and malting barley. It's always a frantic time. No lying on the beach for me.
May 9
Early Mornings at Home Farm
People often want to know what a typical morning is like on the farm. You could say no two mornings are the same, but generally I get up at about 6 am, have a pot of tea and then think about what I'm doing that day. I regularly bake my own bread with the wheat from the farm and enjoy giving the dough a good knead. I look on my laptop at the BBC world weather site to check the rainfall and pressure charts on the Atlantic and then I read. My current book is Jules Pretty's, The Earth Only Endures. Mornings are the best time for me to read because there is no-one else around.
May 8
Sunbathing pigs
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!
