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November 2007
Apologies, goodbyes and half-term walks!
Apologies
Firstly I must apologise for the lack of updates to the October web page. This does not mean that nothing happened - in fact quite the reverse! We completed field moving at Soley, we had two bank manager visits and a quarterly vet visit. This combined with a dose of flu, finished off with a two week half term left little time for anything!
Half-term walks
The advantage of a long half-term, especially a lovely bright, dry one has been the opportunity for lots of walks. The favourite at the moment is to walk up the lane, through the tunnel under the A361 and up to Stone Pit Hill Wood. Stone Pit Hill Wood is mainly blackthorn and elder scrub grown up on abandoned medieval strip lynchets. The hedges along the tract are festooned with Old Mans beard and the bright red berries of White Bryony. At one point in the wood the are some mature beech trees and large yew trees. This is supposed to be the site of a medieval drovers inn. Yew trees are often found growing by these drovers inn, almost like signposts. There is no trace of any building. The old lane is also called the 'Burying Road', apparently because people who died on the downs were carried down the road to be buried in the Village. It's a good story to tell the children sitting under a dark yew tree in the woods!
A year ago there were mushrooms and all sorts of fungi everywhere I looked - this year I have seen very little.
Goodbyes
We said two goodbyes at the end of October. Firstly, to Steve Jonas, the Roadhogs relief pigman. He has been staying with us since August to put up all the electric fencing for the new pig paddocks at Soley - and wind up all the old fencing. He must have walked many, many miles in the process. He also puts up very graciously with our chaotic household. Thank you very much Steve. Hopefully we will see Steve next spring to cover staff holidays. We still have another relief man, Stewart, staying with us for a few more weeks to cover the half-term holidays for our regular staff. He has been with us since the middle of October and comes again in December. It has certainly been a busy autumn on the farm and in our house.
Last week we said goodbye to Paula and Little Bertha. These are two little piglets who have gone to be pet pigs at an animal sanctuary. It's a long story but as a newborn piglet Paula strayed onto the road which passes the pig paddocks at Crooked Soley. How or why she wandered that far (about a quarter of a mile) we shall never know. We have never had any piglets stray onto the road before. Fortunately for her a local couple of very committed animal lovers saw her and rescued her and then decided they wanted to find her a permanent home at an animal sanctuary. Now that she is old enough to be weaned she and a friend have left us for a thoroughly spoilt life at Evesham. We named her after Paula Radcliffe due to her abilities as a long distance runner. Her friend is a saddleback pig like the sow in our logo. That sow was called Bertha - hence Little Bertha. We get regular updates and we are sure they will do very well.
15th November 2007
Frosts, food fayres, winter housing and bird flu
Bird flu! After everything else! Poultry farmers, like pig farmers, are already in real trouble because of high feed prices and the refusal of retailers to pay them enough for their meat - imports are cheaper! Now we have bird flu restrictions, on top of foot and mouth and blue-tongue restrictions. I feel very sorry for those who supply the Christmas market as it's all geared for one time of the year. Whatever you eat this Christmas insist it's British - that's the best way to help farmers. We don't have any commercial poultry, which is perhaps just as well. However, we will take the precaution of housing our garden flock of nine bantams in the stables for the winter. At the moment I've kept them in an enclosed run but with the cold weather they will be better off inside - we might even get some eggs!
Tomorrow we will house the few cattle we have and buy in some more calves for our guernsey cows to rear. We would have bought calves months ago but for the foot and mouth restrictions. The last calves we bought a year ago are nearly as big as the cows now.
Last Friday we took part in a Food Fayre in Devizes Corn Exchange with Andy Cook of Walter Rose. This was targeted at School caterers. There is a quiet improvement going on in School dinners. Gradually many schools are taking in-house again the cooking of good quality hot meals. There are some really dedicated and passionate people about taking on this challenge. It is very encouraging - around here it seems to be mainly happening in Primary Schools - come on Secondary Schools, catch up!
28th November 2007
Danish invasion
Last week we had a visit from 50 Danish agricultural students to the pigs at Crooked Soley. They were able to see all aspects of the breeding unit and seemed to enjoy it - fortunately it stayed dry for the morning. I don't know what the pigs thought of being gauped at by so many people!
At the weekend Alasdair helped Cameron with the pigs at Soley. He recorded all the pigs and piglets ready to be weaned on the next weaning day. It was so cold he struggled to write but he did a good job. It is obviously essential to know how many pens to set up for the weaned piglets and which paddocks the sows are going into. Alasdair also helped break the the ice on the sows troughs - probably quite fun if you're eleven!
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Email: Naughton@Farming.co.uk