Higher Trenowin FarmDiary

2008

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Diary 2007

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JANUARY

 

I can’t believe that I have been writing this monthly diary for a year now!  We celebrated our first birthday – a year since we opened the new shop in the Cows House.  We had some good press coverage in the local papers which brought lots of new customers up the lane. 

 

The weather can be summed up as grey and windy.  If it was not raining we just seem to have sunless days and then tremendous gales but thankfully we have had no damage to buildings.  Temperatures have been mild and this has brought on the cauliflower a pace, we have two varieties maturing at once when they should have been about 3 weeks apart.  The new potatoes are coming up in the polytunnel so things are look good for Easter, but the crows have had all my broad beans as they even broke the surface, I will have to sow an early spring variety and get them covered. 

 

Looking back on last years diary page I read that I found frog spawn on our pond on 12th January but this year it was a week later on the 19th which did surprise me a little but a farmer friend had seen frog spawn on Trewey Downs near Zennor on Christmas Eve!  The hours of daylight are lengthening and so my hens are starting to lay a little better, they seem to have taken a long rest but Spring seems to be stirring them and they are upping their production.

 

New Years day brought the first calf for the season, a lovely strong bull but the calving programme as a whole has been quite slow and sporadic one or two a week.  We have put this down to the bull not being very energetic last March but other farmers as experiencing the same difficulties with their cows.  But we must not complain as out of the 9 calves so far we have had 8 bulls which for a beef herd is very good odds indeed so perhaps the bull isn’t so bad afterall!!  We have a small pen with some very large, expectant mothers to be, they are put there so we can keep an eye on them, one in particular poor sole, she is huge – I wouldn’t be surprised if its twins – I will keep you posted.

MARCH/APRIL

 

Starting with the weather for March and April you can only describe it as extreme – March saw gale after gale of cold wind from the North East which we are not used to, everything in the West of Cornwall is braced for the South Westerlys and this came from the completely opposite direction.  We were so exhausted battling most everyday against the extreme force trying to keep doors shut and roofs on.  The fresh Spring grass that should have been coming on was reluctant to grow and what did come forth got browned off (literally) with the harsh salty wind.  April has been a little warmer but much drier – only 1.3” – which hasn’t helped the grass along either

 

The health of our herd has caused us some concern.  We did have a clear TB test which was a great relief but we had a young calf die of tetanus.  We consulted the vets who advised us that seeing as we had a steer with it some 18 months ago (he did survive) it would be prudent to vaccinate against it, as there had been a number of cases in West Cornwall in the past year.  In came all our girls and babies and they have had their injections.  At the moment it just seems to be one thing after another but hopefully in the long term it will pay dividends.

 

Calves are appearing slowly – looking back on things Steve and I have come to the conclusion that in April/May last year Vulcan must have hurt his back and was not as “athletic” as he could have been because this year he is being very attentive to all his women and once his girls have been seen to there has been no need for a second time!!!

 

BUT there is a new kid on the block – a Devon boy called Basil – another Limousin from the Killerton herd.  Unfortunately after this season, Vulcan will have to go as he will be coming back on his own heifers, so Basil is being brought along gently.  He has settled in very nicely and is enjoying the “company” of 7 16month old heifers.

 

Just before Easter we had a bit of an upset – our farm shop trailer that stood at the end of the lane was stolen on a Friday night.  They had come well equipped with bolt croppers to take the pad-lock off the ball hitch which had kept it attached to another ball hitch on a spike 8” into the ground but had also detached the churn that was attached to the trailer by a chain and left the churn.  Not being too happy on the Saturday morning we called the Police who were very good and did all that they could but did not have a lot to go on.  So Steve put the Landrover at the end of the lane with a large poster “Shop Open, Trailer Stolen”.  All day the shop was filled with sympathetic customers lending advice on what to do with the culprits should they be caught.  We did find bits of the trailer in various places down Nancledra valley but the offenders were never found.  A new trailer has been built but subsequently the churn has now gone missing!

 

On a happier note, our Labrador Lulu has had two puppies, a boy and a girl who are absolutely gorgeous, so stand by and have a look in the picture gallery for some of the snap shots.  Their daddy was local dog Trievey who came from Pengelly Barton, of very good stock, and I don’t think that his progeny will disappoint us in the shooting field.

 

April started to warm up but 8, 9 and 10 of April there were some of the hardest frosts for the winter which caught out some of our potato growing friends further down the valley.  We have had Cornish earlies in the shop since the 8th March the first being grown in the polytunnel but open ground potatoes came forward by 4th April. April was a good month for growing and as soon as our new potatoes were out so runner beans and lettuce went into the polytunnel.  Seem to have had a failure with the peas, the mice and blackbirds like them too!!

 

Turn out of cattle came in the second week of April and we all breathed a sigh of relief – a little less work to do and still silage left in the pile so we have a nice “cushion” to start next season.  With fertilizer at an all time high, we have been very frugal with its spreading and will be relying on a liberal application of FYM later this summer and not too much artificial.

 

April is a difficult time in the shop for vegetables – the end of the winter and not much coming on for summer.  We finished our winter vegetable patch with the help of the cows by the last week in April and have a few things coming forward from the polytunnel and a few other growers in the district.  Hopefully things will start growing with more vigour soon.

 

 

MAY

 

Fine, warm weather has put us all in a better frame of mind for May.  Grass is growing which makes for happy cows and a happy farmer who can see the silage doing nicely.  Sunny days and a good sprinkling of showers has brought every thing along – the hedges are looking magnificent with the bluebells, pink campions, cow parsley and wild onion flowers, a riot of colour, not to mention the rhododendrons and hawthorn in flower.  Have recorded 2.4” of rain for the month which makes it considerably drier than last year.

 

May has been gentle and the cattle have responded well.  The second batch of calvers are doing well without too much problems, bar one who had plant poisoning but she is responding to treatment, but still we don’t know what plant it may be or where it is growing.

 

Lulus puppies are growing well and on 23rd of the month they went to their new homes, the bitch to Leicestershire to be with her granny and the dog to near Sancreed to a very loving home where he will be brought up the right way and learn all about manners and shooting.

 

We managed to do 12 acres of silage in the third week of May, which was a bit of a race but we did manage to get it  wrapped up and in before the rain came and we did another 7 acres at the end of the month.  One of the fields cut was Klondike which is to be the field for growing the winter vegetables and fodder kale for the cows, so the next windless day we have Steve will spray off the grass and start ploughing.

 

The shop has been ticking along nicely.  We have had some superb lamb in from Nancledra and Ludgvan and the pork is as good as ever.  We have been sending some of the pork to Angus Trotter at Radnor, Redruth who is a master man at smoking and the bacon and gammon coming back is superb. 

 

We are quite proud to have been nominated on the UK TV Food website for the second year in a row, some of our lovely customers have been on the website and said nice things about us – it would be great to go a little further with it this year.