Slithering snakes, spinning spiders and cute calves

Phew! What a torrid time we have had since our last newsletter in April!

The arrival of the rain and cooler weather feels like a benediction, and we are looking forward, fingers crossed, to a relatively peaceful run up to Christmas. We managed to get a little bit of early silage made, as well as some ultra-dry hay, but with the grass having disappeared in the heat we have had to start feeding our winter forage which may mean we need to buy in again to get us through the winter.

This looks like something we are going to have to factor in for the coming summers, which are predicted to continue hot and dry, making more forage than previously to make sure we are covering all our needs.

On the arable front - the grain was lighter than usual, a universal problem this year, but the yields were not too bad. More of the grass fields are now being ploughed to take us into our expanded arable rotation. James has been busy working on our Sustainable Farming Incentive application, a time-consuming and fiddly task but one which will be worth it if we get a reasonable level of subsidy to help see us through another year.

Dairy News:

There is plenty to be thankful for at the Dairy just now. We have had a rush of lovely new calves which means plenty of milk just in time for everyone coming back from their summer breaks, and the dairy came through the most recent TB test unscathed. Let’s hope things stay that way.

Laura and Gemma have started our ‘Milk With Me’ experience. Customers have got stuck into the nitty gritty of a milking, including the very first milking of our home bred heifer Pickle. (Thank you very much everyone who suggested a name. Pickle herself was given the final choice!)  

The first milking of a heifer is often tricky due to her having just calved and not being used to having her teats handled. Pickle was no exception, so Gemma and our visitor had to call in reinforcements in the form of James and his thirty-five years of experience avoiding being kicked by cows. All those who came to milk have sent in very kind messages to say how much they have enjoyed it. If you are interested, then head to our website and sign up!

Pickle has settled into the parlour routines beautifully and she and her calf a both doing well.

Deddington Brook Project

Tom Hall of the North East Cotswold Farmer Cluster has been working with us and our neighbouring farms on the scheme to boost biodiversity along the length of the Deddington Brook. Nicholson’s ecology team and their hydrologist have been brought in to do the preliminaries. If all turns out as expected the brook will become a lovely watery wildlife corridor allowing for more natural regeneration in the flood plain.

Nature news:

The milkers have been noticing a kestrel hovering around the fields as they bring the cows in, although it has to put up with frequent bullying from the resident kites. The hot weather has also been good for grass snakes, with quite a few sitings over the last couple of months. The picture above shows a nest of empty grass snakes eggs discovered in our cattle yard. James was excited to notice a wasp spider on the farm for the first time. They are impressive looking mini-beasts!

And the most exciting wildlife event this summer was a special moment for Jeremy. We have had barn owls on the farm for many years, often witnessing one or two coming and going, but Jeremy was there to see the fledging of a family, with six owls swooping out above his head one after the other.

Blackberry Picking:

A huge thank you to our merry band of blackberry pickers. It was a good crop this year and we picked 14.7kg which is a very good haul. The blackberries just keep on coming so if of you want to come and pick for a pie or some jam please do go for it!

No such luck in the orchard unfortunately, a combination of climate change and the ermine moth seems to have sent us from feast last year to famine this year.

I’m off now to fetch a new batch of beef pies from Sonya to pop in the Honesty Shop so do go along this weekend and snap one up!