What's New at the Farm this Autumn?

FarmAutumn2

One of our favourite times of year here on the farm. All the animals have given birth, the harvest is in and the hay is made meaning Autumn is effectively the end of the farming year. However it’s also when we start to plan for next years births so it’s still busy and exciting! We love our Harvest Festival weekend on 26/27^th September when we give thanks for the time of plenty, bless some of our beloved animals and celebrate some traditional farm crafts such as spinning, corn dolly and scarecrow making. Then we open for Pumpkin Picking in October and the patch is looking fab with lots of varieties and sizes to choose from and plenty of photo opps for those Autumnal moments.

Equines

Sensation our 9 year old Shire horse mare is still not back to her normal routine following a bout of laminitis. She is now sporting two front horseshoes, the first time she’s ever had shoes on! She was very good for the farrier bless her. Tabby and Friar have had a chilled summer. We don’t like to ride them out much when the flies are very bad as it drives them crazy. Now we are into Autumn we can start hacking them back out in the park. With both of them creeping towards older age it’s important to keep them moving. The donkeys have been on good form. They did escape from their pen the other day and have a little charge round the piggery yard much to the amusement of all our visitors! They do like to keep us on our toes…

Pigs

Sadie our young Saddleback is in labour as I write this! It will be her first litter of piglets and her good friend Orla the Oxford Sandy and Black is also due in a couple of days. We used an Oxford Sandy and Black boar on both of them so we are so excited to see what they all look like! Lola, Martha, Susie and Monty (our boar) are all well and enjoying their time out in the field. We have also welcomed a new arrival – Tilly the Tamworth!! You will hear her before you see her as she is sooooo loud.

Sheep

We have all been worried about the Bluetongue virus and watched the spread of it across from Europe and up from southern Britain this year. It’s spread by infected midges so other than vaccinate (which we had) there is nothing you can do but hope. So far so good but we will all be relieved when we get the first cold snap (hopefully) which should put an end to the midges this year. As the climate heats up we are discovering new challenges with the livestock all the time. The ewes will be health checked shortly and we will work out dates for them to run with the rams ready for our lambing week next year which will start the end of March.

Cows

The cows have all been running with the bull for a few weeks now. We will be able to get them pregnancy scanned soon and we have everything crossed for a good outcome after a disastrous year last year. Bluetongue can also affect cattle and unfortunately if they have been exposed to the virus it can affect their fertility. The fact that we have vaccinated means we have done our best to protect them and the future of the herd.

Goats

The goats have been stealing the limelight with both Emily and Rose having gorgeous goat kids. Emily’s triplets – Honey, Basil and Barnaby and Rose’s twins – Hazel and Holly are growing so fast and it won’t be long before we wean them and give mums a well deserved rest. We have had to top Basil up on the bottle as Emily has struggled to feed all three and unfortunately Basil is her least favourite! We will be blessing our rare breed Royal Golden Guernsey goat kids at the harvest festival.

Poultry

Our hatchery is about to close for the year as chicks are for Spring and Summer and definitely not Autumn. The incubator is off until next year and the last hatch are nearly ready to go out on the yard. Our free range flock of hens are everywhere though, busy trying to steal visitors picnics and always good fun to watch as they dust bath and roam around the farm.