Welcome to our June newsletter 

Christmas!!

On the 9th June Christmas preparations for us began with the arrival of 600, one day old turkey poults (chicks)

For the first few weeks they spend their lives in round enclosures within the poult house as they need to be kept under heat lamps and close to their feeders and drinkers. After about a week their feathers are getting quite established, and they have learnt to jump out of the cardboard rings, so they are given the run of the shed. At about 4 weeks old when they are almost fully feathered and provided the weather is good, they then begin venturing outside into their first paddock which is full of nettles, cow parsley, elder trees and other interesting plants and they begin foraging and exhibiting their natural behaviour. At this stage they also move to the bigger shed where they are shut in at night to keep them safe from predators such as foxes but will have access to the outside during daylight hours. We are quite unique in letting them outside from such a young age. For a turkey to be classed as free range it only needs to have access to the outside for half of its life. If we did this, it would mean our turkeys wouldn’t go outside until 12 weeks old. By letting them outside earlier it means they are more likely to go out and enjoy browsing the specially planted fruit orchards. They go out into these when they no longer rely on any additional heat.

Don't worry, we don't need you to plan numbers for dinner just yet! Orders open on the 1st October.

Lamb boxes available to order now

We have just a few of our rare breed Oxford Down lamb boxes left to order, on our website, for collection at the pop-up shop on Saturday 2nd July (We are happy to arrange an alternative collection date if you can't make it)

These are born, reared, butchered and packaged here on the farm by Lindsay.

We have half lambs or taster boxes available. For full details and to place an order click below to visit the online shop.

Make hay whilst the sun shines! 

With a well forecast dry spell ending with a scorching hot few days we’ve been flat out on silage and hay. By the end of the week, we’ll have hopefully made 80 acres of clamp silage, 20 of hay and 14 of round bale silage which should see us through the winter. The silage is quicker to make than the hay as it’s harvested when it’s still damp, whereas the hay needs to be bone dry before bailing or it will be damp and the cows won’t appreciate it. Silage can be made with just two dry days compared to hay needing 4-5 sunny hot days. The hay is however much easier to feed out to cows in the field and this helps reduce the housed period for the cattle. Every old farmer will tell you that June hay is the best, when cut it’ll contain a much higher ratio of leaf to stem making it far more nutritious than stemmy hay made later in the season but…. cutting early means most of the wild flowers won’t have had a chance to set seed and repeated early or frequent cutting generally reduces diversity favouring those few species that can cope. So, as with most things in life compromise is the answer. We have one field with a dedicated red clover and rye grass mixture - this is designed to give high quality silage and it’s cut at about five week intervals. This takes the pressure off making silage in more biodiverse areas which can be left for grazing once flowering is complete. One hay field presented a problem, it was a great crop for making into hay, we had time and weather on our side but I knew it had some great biodiversity. The answer was for me to walk around the field marking the areas with the greatest wild flowers before guiding Dad on the first lap with the mower to make sure we missed the Ox eye daisies, Yellow Rattle, Birds Foot Trefoil and Ladies Bedstraw. This field is next to the BBQ area of Lydiard Park so hopefully this explains why it looks unfinished. The remaining area can be cut or grazed later in the year hopefully giving these species a chance to expand. The Yellow Rattle is of particular interest as it reduces the vigour of grass which in turn helps other flowers move in. The seed probably came in from North Meadow hay which I fed a little of or it may have been lying dormant and was stimulated to grow by the winter grazing of that field.        

Lindsay's Shepherds update

We had the Shearers come at the beginning of the month to shear the 40 ewes and 3 rams. I was struggling to find someone to come and shear them, so I began shearing them myself and was overjoyed when I finally managed to get a professional in! My sheep (Oxford Downs) weigh about 100kg+ for the ewes and about 140kg for the rams which is considerably heavier than myself or Chris. A professional shearer tips the sheep onto their bottom and shears the entire sheep in about 5 minutes. I was attempting to shear them with them standing which worked on the tame and friendly ones but not so well with the ones with a bit more spirit. After the hour I spent shearing each sheep the look of some of them was reminiscent of the Specsavers advert!

I had a letter from the British wool marketing board (BWMB) the other day informing me that the price of wool was well on the up compared to last year. I can now expect about £1.00 per fleece rather than the 20p I was paid for it last year, but it has cost me £4 per ewe and £8 per ram to have it removed. I will get paid for this year’s wool clip in 2023 when it has been auctioned by the BWMB so fingers crossed I may see a little return.

I do still have some fleece for sale for anyone who wants some for garden or craft use. It has been working well for preventing slugs on the garden.

Fantastic news on Swallow numbers!

Some of you may know that last year I was concerned that I'd heard of farmers that no longer had Swallows nesting. As a result, I thought I must start monitoring numbers. I can do this by simply counting the number of chicks looking over the nest prior to fledging.

Last year we had four nesting pairs and all fledged one brood of four or five. This year I was adamant we could do better. I was aiming for two more nests.

The key to increasing numbers is to make sure buildings are secure enough to prevent predation (magpies and ravens) but open enough to let the Swallow in. I left three outbuildings doors open, that had previously always been locked, and one of these is a new Swallow home. One large shed I kept doors shut that are normally open and lifted one shutter, this also now has a nest. I beefed up some netting on the front of the stable and an extra pair have moved in and with no alterations we have a new nest in the back of the turkey barn.
We now have eight active nests, two of which have fledged so the yard is now alive with young Swallows hurtling around honing their flying skills. Hopefully the adults will soon settle down and have another brood. The buildings are in regular use so the birds are not disturbed by us going about our normal business

This month off the farm

Earlier in the month myself and Lindsay had the chance to visit some farming friends of mine in Oxfordshire. Jon and Nick Francis never set out to be farmers but their love of pork led them to keeping a few Tamworth pigs. Fast forward 15 years and the brothers, now in their thirties, have a thriving high street butchers shop, and are pushing the boundaries in the way they produce their own pork, beef and eggs. They even have a small market garden to compliment the business! Their lucky break came when they cold called Raymond Blanc’s restaurant and offered him some sausage samples, the chef loved them and it opened the door to many other restaurant customers.

The lads like to do things a little different – the pigs are grazed in such a way that they don’t dig, this has numerous benefits including more of the diet can come from grazed forage rather than bought in feed. ‘They’re probably the only people in the country doing this and sharing what they learn. The chickens are kept in a large mobile shed which is moved to a fresh position each day. The chickens are free range behind a mobile electric fence but the plan is to let them go truly wild once the training of the livestock guardian dog is completed.

The cows are mob grazed like ours and 100% grass fed, with the brothers comparing the economic and eating attributes of Hereford beef alongside bought in dairy calves. The market garden is predictably unconventional – the chickens are moved into the poly tunnels in the winter which keeps them warm, happy and compliant with the regular winter bird flu restrictions and they also have the added bonus of adding all that fertiliser to the soil.

It's staggering what these two have achieved in such a short amount of time, they now even employ two full time farm staff and at least four in the butchery. I’d been wanting to see their farm for a few years now so I was devastated to hear that a week after my visit they suffered a large fire. No livestock or people were hurt but they lost two sheds, a pick-up truck, a tractor, two livestock trailers and a lot of hay and straw. I’m confident this won’t set them back, they’ve far too much energy for a major fire to get in the way of their plans.

If you are near Brailes (five miles north of Chipping Norton) do call into Paddock Farm Butchery, you won’t find a better high street butchers.

Pop-up farm shop - Saturday 2nd July 10am - noon

The pop up farm shop is next popping up on Saturday 2nd July 10am - noon. We are now aiming to have the shop on the first Saturday of each month rather than every 4 weeks to make it easier for our customers to plan their shopping. This will coincide with when we have our fresh beef available too (Pre-orders from Andy Rumming's beef website).

We do usually have a good stock of beef available in the freezer if you are needing a top up in-between the shops and we are more than happy to arrange an alternative collection day just drop us an email. The dates are of course subject to change as we need to try and squeeze a holiday in, so the September one may be a week later but as always the Facebook page and website will have all the latest info.

We will have all the usual goodies including: A small selection of our Oxford Down Mutton in the freezer, our fresh 100% pasture fed beef, Marshalls bakery lardy cakes, bread and sweet treats. Rosemary's preserves, Local honey, British in season fruit & Veg, Dora's dairy milk & milkshakes, Berkeley Farms butter, Yoghurt & cream, British grown grains and pulses and more!