Down on the Farm January/February 2010
After a very busy December at the Farm Shop we generally look forward to a slightly quieter time on the farm during January – this year has been a bit different so far as we have had to contend with the snow and ice like everyone else. However, being a lowland farm and fairly close to main roads etc has meant we have has an easy time compared to the farmers in the hills who have struggled to get feed and water to outlying stock – I guess whenever things get a bit tough there will always be someone else worse off than yourself !! Everything always seems to take twice as long when conditions are like this – frozen pipes are always a particularly unpleasant chore as whatever method you use still seems to result in gallons of icy water up the coat sleeves from overhead fittings. The stock indoors have all been fine, with feed and warm bedding they are perfectly happy in the low temperatures.
The sheep outside have also been fine – they have had extra hay and silage as the grass has been covered with snow. We normally start supplementary feeding at this time of year anyway as all of the ewes are in lamb and we need to maximise nutrition for them. Everything has been scanned with ultrasound so that we know which are carrying singles, twins and triplets. Each group then receives a different level of extra feed so that we avoid the singles getting too big and the triplets being too thin. It is vital to keep the ewes in the correct condition so that when they give birth, there is plenty of milk for the lambs. It also helps to know when a ewe is lambing how many she is likely to have - it helps with fostering across of triplets to those with singles
There is very little happening on the arable enterprise at this time of year – all of the winter crops are through and are looking OK – germination has been good and the plants were big enough to survive the winter frost. In fact, a good cold winter usually means the arable crops do better as lots of pests and diseases are killed off in the low temperatures. It is also a good time of year to do any machinery repairs and maintenance before the spring – this is generally the plan but there always seems to be one bit of kit which gets missed and promptly breaks down as soon as it goes into the field.
The new pig building is working well and is much easier to manage than the old system. There are still a few finishing touches to complete but generally we are very pleased – the pigs certainly seem to be growing well and have not seemed bothered by the recent low temperatures. All we need to do now is finish the handling pens and loading bay and we might be close to the “pig palace” from my original design. Still, there is still plenty of 2010 to complete this !!
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