Life on the farm at Vines Close is a little quieter after the busy summer of haymaking. Now we are managing the fields by grazing them with sheep to eat down the grass along with any potential weeds, and grazing also helps add valuable organic fertiliser to the ground. After the 1st September we start tidying up some of the hedges, starting by cutting the road fronting hedges along the A31 to ensure the safety and visibility of the road, followed by some of the hedges between the grass fields. As part of the government guidance and for our own habitat conservation not all hedges are cut every year. This allows birds more food over the winter months, along with cover and shelter which provides protection from the elements and predators. We are passionate about improving our environmental credentials and looking after our environment, so in 2016 we planted approximately 12 acres with trees. So after the busy summer we use this time before the busy Christmas period in the farm shop to do some maintenance works around the trees. We tidy up some of the grass growing in amongst the trees (we leave this over the summer to provide habitat for mammals and food for pollinators). We check the health of the trees and see if any need new tree guards to protect them from the deer, and ensure they are growing well and straight and have no other issues.
On our sister farm near Blandford we have been full steam ahead with planting of the winter crops. The oil seed rape, wheat and some of the barley needs to be planted before the weather gets too wet and cold meaning there is a crop growing over the winter months and the soil is not left bare. We do plant some spring varieties of barley, and in these areas we plant either turnips or other “catch crops” as a short term crop to help ensure the soil is not left bare over the winter leaving it vulnerable to erosion and soil damage. The turnips are planted to finish off our lambs, providing them with a nutritious supply of fodder when the grass often becomes depleted and often lacking in nutrients. Once most of the drilling is done, it’s a good time to catch up on a bit of machinery maintenance. . All the hay making equipment and harvest equipment is all washed off and greased up before being stored away for the winter undercover in one of the barns.
Some farmers have to sell all of their corn at harvest time as they are unable to store the grain in dry and safe conditions. We are lucky here to have a grain store building and additional silo to store a large percentage of the harvested produce. This means that its not quite so chaotic during harvest having to try and load lorries at the same time at actually harvesting the crop. This then means that over the winter and into the spring comes the farmers lottery of trying to sell your corn at the best time for the best price. Some corn is sold under contact at a predetermined price, and some is stored until you think is the right time to sell, so it can all be a bit of a gamble. When there is a need in the supply chain for more commodities the price will often increase, and vis versa depending on how much the processors need. So, over these months it is often busy with grain lorries coming in and out of the farm picking up all the stored grain, and delivering to the mills for either human grade processing or to the animal feed mills, or the ports for some of the malting barley which goes off to the continent for brewing. Some corn is sold under contact at a
We will soon be introducing our rams to the ewes on the 1st of November to hopefully start lambing the last week in March. This year we are trying something a little different, and although we normally just use a Dorset ram with our predominantly Dorset flock, we have this year purchased a Jacob ram to put to a few of the ewe lambs to hopefully get some beautiful coloured fleeces. Unfortunately there is no longer money in wool, and gone are the days of keeping sheep just to make a profit from the fleeces. It now costs us more to shear the ewes than we make from selling the wool, however we found a company in Devon who tan the hides, so when our lambs go to the local abattoir, we get the fleeces tanned making best use of all of the animal.
Our flock is relatively small of only 60 odd ewes and the 90 or so lambs we rear, but for me it’s the perfect number to rear in a traditional way by allowing the lambs to grow slowly out on pasture only eating grass with the addition of a mineral lick. We started with only 3 sheep primarily to rear some lamb for ourselves, and our flock has grown year on year by keeping the ewe lambs and then borrowing rams each year from a local farming friend.
Our sheep stay out all year round apart from coming in for a couple of days when they lamb in the spring. Our cows however normally come in over the winter as there is not enough grass out in the fields, and with our lovely wet British weather, our ground unfortunately doesn’t allow them to be outside without it turning into a mud pit. So, for now I’m pleased with the unseasonably dry weather we are having as it means the cows can stay out at pasture. Once the weather turns and the wet weather comes we will have to bed up one of our barns with straw and fill the feeders with hay to provide a comfortable home for them for the coming winter months.
The turnips are planted.
Our flock is relatively small of only 60 odd ewes and the 90 or so lambs we rear, but for me it’s the perfect number to rear in a traditional way by allowing the lambs to grow slowly out on pasture only eating grass with the addition of a mineral lick. We started with only 3 sheep primarily to rear some lamb for ourselves, and our flock has grown year on year by keeping the ewe lambs and then borrowing rams each year from a local farming friend.
Our sheep stay out all year round apart from coming in for a couple of days when they lamb in the spring. Our cows however normally come in over the winter as there is not enough grass out in the fields, and with our lovely wet British weather, our ground unfortunately doesn’t allow them to be outside without it turning into a mud pit. So, for now I’m pleased with the unseasonably dry weather we are having as it means the cows can stay out at pasture. Once the weather turns and the wet weather comes we will have to bed up one of our barns with straw and fill the feeders with hay to provide a comfortable home for them for the coming winter months.
