What an exciting month May is on the farm! May can often feel like the start of our summer, with some of the bigger machines coming out of the sheds for grass silage, and the ‘dream team’ being back together. We spend the winter months so looking forward to this time of year, and it never disappoints! It is always a thrill to see the fleet of tractors and trailers driving in convoy with the forage harvester and buck rake, and whilst we may have the occasional puncture or minor breakdown, there is something quite exhilarating about silage season!
Doing grass silage jobs entails a fair few early starts and late finishes for the team, but it is worth it, because we get the privilege of working on some beautiful farms. We are lucky to have some wonderful clients, and this last week we have been working for Broom House Farm, and Wheatley Heads Dairy Farm. Two excellent farms, who take great pride in their farming practices and care of their livestock, and have fabulous farm shops too!
Alongside the silage, we have been doing the last stage of fertiliser application on the crops and spraying for any disease. This is always an enormous task this time of year, because most crops need to be treated, alongside grass and grazing land… It is surprising to think that in a matter of weeks, we will be servicing the combine harvesters and preparing the sheds for grain storage.
However, before the mayhem of harvest, we have the fun job of making hay! The lads have been busy in the workshop this week, servicing the baler, and bale trailers, and Martin has been off visiting lots of different agricultural dealerships to buy us a new grass mower, which is on its way to the farm as I type! We will be starting to cut grass this week, so do get in touch if you are wanting to purchase any haylage this year.
It won’t be long until the arrival of our KellyBronze turkey chicks, and we are looking forward to another good year, despite the ongoing troubles around Avian Influenza (AI). Sadly, several turkey farmers in the UK have decided to give up poultry farming due to the outbreaks last year, and there remains a lot of uneasiness around AI in the media. However, we are British Farmers, and we will fight on! Hopefully by taking all precautions and putting strict biosecurity measures in place, we can minimise if not eradicate risk on our farm! Thankfully our area has been very lucky with no outbreaks, and fingers crossed this continues!
Judith’s lambs are growing fast, and we will be selling Lamb Box’s again very soon. All our lamb is reared at home and pasture fed and raised slowly to maximise flavour. We also butcher locally and package the lamb at home on our farm. This year, we are offering half lamb boxes, and a taster box (which is ¼ lamb). The taster box will have all the same cuts as the ½ lamb, but less of them. We are hoping this will give people the opportunity to try locally reared British lamb, and also not be put off, should they have a small freezer. Keep an eye out on our Facebook page for updates!
Until next month. Wishing everyone all the best,
Martin, Judith, Richard, Tanza & George