I am a little behind writing our blog this month, and as I type, there is a thick blanket of snow covering the entire farm. It has been a very cold few days here, with over 6 inches of snowfall and at times temperatures plummeting to minus 5 over-night. Whilst the snow looks beautiful, and this time of year, gives a wonderful festive feel, working in it is not all that fun! Aside from being cold, and slipping and sliding, we have been battling with frozen water pipes and woke up this morning to a burst pipe in one of livestock sheds. Always a fun job to fix on a Sunday morning! That said, we have enjoyed some lovely snowy walks with the dogs and have a newfound appreciation for the log burner! Even the farm dogs have now taken up residence in front of the fire, and have been spending hours lounging in the warm, instead of being out of the farm with us!
Despite us being ‘out of season’, the farm has been a hive of activity this month, with our harvest machinery being bathed and mothballed for winter, and all of our farm implements being washed and serviced and repaired ready for use in Spring. There was hope that we may get some more crops sown this month, but due to the wet weather, we were unable to travel. The tractors have therefore done very little work, and instead enjoyed a good clean and a service, alongside the odd day of hedge cutting, and a few days working at Sunderland Docks helping unload the cargo ships. We were also fortunate to be able to get the crop sprayer out and apply some (very delayed) plant protection products to our crops when the ground finally hardened up.
Martin, Richard and Jake have spent lots of time hiding from the rain and cold in the workshop and alongside servicing tractors, they have been stripping back and carrying out annual maintenance to the forage harvester and maize header and also replacing seals and bearings on the power harrow. On an exciting note, Richard is a very happy farmer and has been spoilt with a new tractor which is due to arrive shortly. We have replaced our blue New Holland T7-245 with a Case Puma 220, so another beautiful red tractor is joining our fleet… who says Christmas presents don’t come in tractor size!!
Talking of Christmas, the turkeys are growing well and look fabulous. They have thoroughly enjoyed being out in the snow this week, but keen to be tucked up in their shed over night with lots of extra cosy straw! As most of you are aware, Judith retired from rearing the turkeys last year and I (Tanza) have taken over. It has been such fun looking after them and rearing them from day old chicks, and I have been blown away, by the popularity of our KellyBronze turkeys and the continued support from all of our loyal customers. I couldn’t believe that we had sold out before the 1st of December, and I would very much like to thank you all for making the transition so easy. It really has been a pleasure, and I am already planning to increase my turkey numbers for next year and very much looking forward to it!
Judith has been kept busy with her lovely flock of Suffolk sheep, and alongside grass, they have been enjoying lots of home grown haylage and oats to keep them warm during this cold spell. They have also had the ‘tup’ to visit this month, so hopefully there will be some Spring lambs at Murton Moor Farm next year. We have temporarily stopped our lamb boxes for the Christmas period, however we are hoping to have some more ready at the end of January, so please get in touch if you wish to reserve one.
Until next month.
Wishing everyone all the best and a very Merry Christmas,
Martin, Judith, Richard, Tanza & George