Autumn news from the Farm

farm autumn collage

It has been such a successful Summer here on The Farm. We were so pleased to see so many of you visit and very grateful for all the support and lovely comments from our visitors. And now we can feel that change in the air that signals Autumn! Autumn is a time of planning for the next farming year and also a time of reflection and giving thanks for the fruits of the year gone by.

Pigs

We are in the process of building our pig numbers up again after many of our much loved, long standing pigs have reached their twilight years. We have had to say goodbye to Tamara the Tamworth and Louis our Large White boar, which is always very sad. Molly, Luna, Tallulah and Tilly are all well. Luna has done an amazing job of rearing her 11 piglets. We were delighted that two of Molly’s rare breed Middle White piglets went to a new home at Terra Nova school. We love building new relationships within the community and hope they will bring lots of joy to the staff and students there!

Sheep

The lambs have been weaned and are growing on nicely. We have selected our ‘gimmers’ (the ewe lambs we want to stay in the flock to become breeding ewes) and are really pleased with them. Next job will be a condition check of the ewes to check they are healthy enough to rear lambs next year and then the selected ones will be sponged (treated with a hormone to synchronise their cycles so that they lamb close together) and then turned out with our rams ready for lambing next year!

Cows

Our Red Poll herd is looking fab. We have struggled a bit this year with too much grass!! When do farmers ever say that?! It’s important to make sure that none of the animals get too overweight as that brings its own set of problems. The upside of too much grass is that we got another cut of hay and we may even get a crop of silage off the field this year too. We will hire a bull again in October ready for calving next year.

Horses and Donkeys

Friar, Tabitha and Sensation are still being hacked out every week and really enjoying it. We really missed the excitement of the Cheshire Show but it means we can be well prepped for next year. We celebrated Blossom’s 20th Birthday with cake and a big tummy scratch! The donkeys are being long reined out regularly with Huw taking to the new challenge particularly well.

Other news

We sadly lost Prancer, one of our pair of reindeer, to a stomach infection. It was very sudden and sad but we are pleased to say that Dancer is coping well. Our cheeky goats have been so pleased to have some attention from the visitors and are sulking a bit now that the schools are back and The Farm is quieter again!

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