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.
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