Wiltshire Village Meats Farm Diary - Oct/Nov 2009 -

	Wiltshire Village Meats Welfare - - Quality				In association with Walter Rose and son Family Butchers
OCT/NOV 2009 SEP 2009 AUG 2009 JUL 2009 JUN 2009 MAY 2009 APR 2009 MAR 2009 FEB 2009 JAN 2009 DEC 2008 NOV 2008	FARM DIARY THE EVERYDAY STORY OF LIFE ON A WILTSHIRE FARM
	Links to other pages HOME FARM SHOP FARM SHOP - Greeting Cards WALTER ROSE ABOUT OUR FARMING FARM DIARY RECIPES QUESTIONS CONTACT US		October/November 2009 - Autumn Apologies, Roundhouses and Rams Firstly I must begin with an apology. Regular visitors to this site will have noticed that October never managed to have a page to itself. This sadly due to the sudden and brief illness of my Mother. She died peacefully at the age of 81 in the middle of October. Although I don't come from a farming background I can attribute my love of the countryside and animals, and interst in food production to both my parents. My Mother always grew all our vegetables and kept goats and chickens in the garden. She was always fascinated by visits to the farm and was always offering to help when things were busy, yet frustrated that she didn't quite have the strength anymore. The picture on the right shows her on her 79th birthday picnic at the Crooked Soley outdoor unit in 2007. She wanted to see the unit and we had a very memorable day. She leaves a big hole in our lives and it has taken a while to catch up on work that was neglected during her illness, including this website I'm afraid. Life on the farm continues apace. The appearance of large green tents in one of our fields caused considerable interest from passing motorists and ramblers. I think now the electric fencing is up and pigs installed their use is rather more apparent. No, we are not planning on hosting a music festival. The tents are for housing groups of sows. They make brilliant pig accomodation as they are roomy and airy for the pigs, but they are also good for humans to work in. Most pig huts, even the big group ones are not high enough to stand up in. This means to get sows and boars out, or to straw them up you have to walk bent double or even crawl on hands and knees. We bought a four more ewes in October and as part of the deal we have borrowed a Suffolk ram for a few weeks. He turned up at the beginning of November so we hope for lambs at the beginning of April; the gestation of a sheep being five months. Our lambs from this season are now seperated from the ewes in a different field as the ramlamb needs to be grown on to slaughter weight and the and the ewelamb is too young for breeding.
	For further information on anything on this site please contact Muriel Naughton Email: Naughton@Farming.co.uk