Much like the end of July, the weather gradually deteriorated during August and ended up being a fairly wet month. This makes life tricky for us because we need to haul a lot of straw that we need for winter bedding for the cattle, and this can only be combined when the weather is dry. We did manage to get around 100 bales into our store at the farm in early August, but this is only about a ¼ of the amount we need.
August also brings about the traditional time of year when the lambs are separated from their mothers. This is a crucial job to get right on timing because the ewes need time to dry their milk up before going back with the rams to get in lamb for next year. The ewes are taken away and placed on fields with very little grass, this means they won’t keep producing milk. The lambs are placed in fields where there is lush grass as we want them to fatten quickly. For the first few days of separation we have to make sure all the fences and gates are good as they will be trying to get back with each other.
Elsewhere on the farm we got all of the fattening cattle (beef cattle) in to the pens at the farm and sorted 6 bigger fatter cattle to be shut indoors in the building, these will go for beef within the next 3 months. The rest of the cattle were taken down over the canal bridge into fresh pastures.
We also continued to move sheep regularly, as this is crucial for the prevention of diseases such as foot rot, which we have none of.
Meanwhile we managed to buy 50 new breeding ewes for next years lambing flock from another organic farmer who breeds ewes. These come on to the farm and need to be separated from the other sheep for two weeks incase they are carrying anything that might spread to the other sheep. This is part of our Organic status that we have to do this. After the two weeks is up they can go with the other sheep and our attentions will turn to trimming all of their feet.
Our new E Commerce website is now up and running and orders can now be placed through this site and paid for via credit/debit card. Look out for special offers on the launch of the website – for your first orders. This system should now make the ordering system more efficient and less hassle to the customer as you can order at a time to suit you.
Looking ahead to September, we hope to finish buying in all of our winter straw, the ewes will also be foot trimmed, and possibly foot bathed ready to go with the rams in October. So each month quickly fills up with important jobs to be done.
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