Welcome to our October newsletter 

Turkeys

Farming turkeys used to be a fairly predictable affair, I used to grow a handful more each year and I’d always pick up enough new customers to buy the extra birds. The orders would come in from the first of October steadily through to mid-December. Each year was very similar and then last year happened! In 2020 there was concern amongst turkey farmers that everyone would be wanting small turkeys due to restrictions, luckily our customers bought sizes that fitted with what we had grown. Sales last year for all small turkey producers were stronger than any had experienced before, we sold as many in the first week in October as we normally sell in the whole month and I think this year will be even more frantic!

Many of the large turkey growers have cut back production and collectively this will mean a staggering 500,000 less turkeys being grown this year. Reduction in numbers being grown has been driven largely by staff shortages at processing plants. The good news for you is that I’ve grown an extra 100 birds this year and (fingers crossed) my dedicated team of pluckers and processors are keen to return. I’m fortunate that the team that help me over Christmas do so because they enjoy the camaraderie of the job and the atmosphere we strive to create – plenty of tea, tucker and chatting. We obviously pay them all but none of them do it solely for the money.

Most of our costs have risen this year unfortunately. Chick costs have gone up 10% and I suspect the packaging will go up by at least 25% (cardboard seems to be worth its weight in gold these days thanks to Amazon, Covid tests and vaccine packaging). Feed is our biggest expense and has increased by over 10% but luckily some of this increase has been mitigated by us investing in a feed silo so we can now buy in bulk which saves us a bit. All of this will lead to a 6%ish rise in our turkey prices this year.

So, after all that rather tedious info my advice to you would be wherever you order your turkey from don’t leave it too late.

Sheep update

Tony (pictured above), Robert, Paul and our borrowed ram Barney have been hard at work and have tupped (mated) all but one of the ewes. The aim is for the rams to serve all the ewes in their 1st cycle so we have 3 days for the remaining ewe to be seduced by the ram. Gestation for a sheep is 147 days so we should have some lambs running around in early February. The ram wears a thick paste on his chest known as raddle. When he then mounts the ewes he leaves them with coloured bottoms, we then keep our fingers crossed that they are in lamb.

Now, you may wonder how Lindsay comes up with such names but there is some logic. All her home bred rams are named after herdsmen that have previously worked on the farm, amusingly Paul the cowman who retired some years ago may not know he has a ram named after him until he reads this!

In last month’s newsletter I alluded to Lindsay selling a ram to a prestigious project. As the ram has now cleared multiple health screenings and fertility tests we’re safe to say more.

Lindsay nominated one of her rams to take part in a large scientific project which aims to identify rams with superior economic potential. The trial supplies multiple rams of varying breeds to 7 large sheep farms where each ram runs with around 70 commercial type (non-pedigree) ewes. Come lambing the farmers collect data from each lambing – number of lambs and weights. They then collect the growth data from the progeny of each ram as his offspring grow. This is collected by running the lambs over electronic scales and scanning electronic identification tags as they go. Fat coverage and eye muscle data is collected via ultrasound and further data is collected by examining the carcases at the abattoir. This vast amount of data is then computed by boffins and geneticists to work out which rams have performed the best. No other Oxford Down ram has ever had this level of scrutiny so we are just hoping “Neil” is a hit with the ewes and that his lambs grow well. We’ll have to wait for next autumn for all the data to be released.

Did you see our cows on the telly?

Last year Sir Tony Robinson visited my brother and Uncle’s farm at Waterhay near Ashton Keynes. They spent a day filming the cows and taking some great aerial shots. These cows are our breeding herd and it’s their offspring that then come to Park Farm to be grown on after weaning. Tony’s enthusiasm for our style of farming really came across and Andy even had him rummaging for dung beetles.

My5 - The Thames with Tony Robinson - Season 3 - Episode 5 / Southend

Pop-up shop - Saturday 9th October 10am - noon

We’ll have all our normal fantastic products including: British in season veg, Dora’s dairy milk, Sherston eggs, bread, lardy cakes and treats from Marshalls bakery, jams and chutneys from Rosemary Tuck and more! As well as our fresh 100% grass fed beef on the chill counter. Do pop along if you’ve not seen what we get up to once a month.

For those of you thinking about Christmas gifts we will have our new Oxford Down knit a beanie hat kits - Pattern supplied by Lindsay's Granny! As well as handmade wool decorations.

This time we’ll also be running a quick turkey tour at 11.30am - 12 so if you want to learn more about the turkeys now is your chance!

Wildlife on the farm 

The farm pond had a major overhaul this week (before & after photos above), it’s been several years since it had any attention, and the reeds were advancing towards the centre leaving little water. The plant growth is welcome as it is full of invertebrates and this attracts everything above them in the food chain. However, what’s great for the warblers isn’t so good for gadwall, kingfishers and swallows which need space to dabble, fish and drink.

A water leak elsewhere on the farm meant we had to get a digger in at short notice so I took the opportunity to do some extra jobs with it, it was certainly easier than doing it with a spade! Autumn is a pretty good time for pond work, most things have hatched and flown off or crawled out and things aren’t hibernating so are less vulnerable if disturbed. Three large trailer loads of reeds, weed and lilies were removed which looks dramatic but when everything regrows in the spring it’ll look like nothing has happened. Hopefully my Reed Warblers will enjoy the improved view when they return from Africa in the spring.