The weather continued much in the same vein throughout October, very warm days with plenty of sunshine and very little rainfall. The only difference was that the end of the month brought some very cold conditions and the first ground frosts.
Traditionally on the farm October is a quiet month and a good chance to take a well earned rest or even a holiday. After a busy summer harvesting and haymaking, these are much in demand. But with livestock someone always has to be here and the work goes on. The muckspreading was finished just in time before the ground got too wet! October is also a great time to do grassland topping and we managed to cut all the grass on the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, this will make a huge difference in the spring to grass growth and is our only tool in combating weeds.
Our bull Grove Wellington was housed in late October, he is now in his winter quarters for 6 months until the spring. We do this because as last years calves get bigger and stronger there becomes a risk that they might get served by the bull and this would not be good because they are too young.
Two brand new rams were purchased early in the month and are ready to go with the ewes, with the 2 that we already had. When you get new rams they need to be shut in with the old rams in a small pen until they are used to each other and to make sure they don’t have any run up and chance of fighting each other.
As we look ahead to November, we will be starting to organise Christmas orders and finalise delivery dates. We plan to sell some cattle and they must be TB tested.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
September - Cullimores Organics Farm News
September was an exceptionally dry month and we had hardly any rainfall throughout, with temperatures consistently in the 20s. This meant that all the arable (crop) farmers could get the combines out and harvest at long last, after a very challenging August this must have come as a huge relief.
We were also relieved in September as we were able to fetch our straw bales from the fields at nearby Wickwar, straw is a traditional by product of harvesting wheat, oats and barley and we need it for bedding during the winter months when the cattle are housed. This is roughly a week’s work to bring all of this into our stores at the farm, long days backwards and forwards are only made worthwhile when the last bale is in the barn and it rains.
Elsewhere on the farm we continued with topping fields, to ensure that we had fresh grass coming through for the autumn and winter. We also managed to take advantage of the dry weather to spread muck on certain fields to give it an organic nitrogen boost and ensure maximum growth ready for next spring and summer. The much is spread by a contractor and then harrowed ourselves to ensure it goes into the ground. The other main job in September is to foot trim all of the ewes on the farm, by hand, this is tough work but needs to be done before the ewes go with the rams in October.
September also saw the launch of Cullimores Organics website as a fully functional e commerce website, where you can pay by card and have your order delivered anywhere in the UK. We could not have anticipated the demand for this service and record sales were achieved. The whole system allows us to process orders far more efficiently. So it’s well worth a visit – http://www.cullimoresorganics.co.uk/
As we look ahead to October, we hope to purchase 2 new rams, put the rams with the ewes and shut in the bull into his winter quarters.
We were also relieved in September as we were able to fetch our straw bales from the fields at nearby Wickwar, straw is a traditional by product of harvesting wheat, oats and barley and we need it for bedding during the winter months when the cattle are housed. This is roughly a week’s work to bring all of this into our stores at the farm, long days backwards and forwards are only made worthwhile when the last bale is in the barn and it rains.
Elsewhere on the farm we continued with topping fields, to ensure that we had fresh grass coming through for the autumn and winter. We also managed to take advantage of the dry weather to spread muck on certain fields to give it an organic nitrogen boost and ensure maximum growth ready for next spring and summer. The much is spread by a contractor and then harrowed ourselves to ensure it goes into the ground. The other main job in September is to foot trim all of the ewes on the farm, by hand, this is tough work but needs to be done before the ewes go with the rams in October.
September also saw the launch of Cullimores Organics website as a fully functional e commerce website, where you can pay by card and have your order delivered anywhere in the UK. We could not have anticipated the demand for this service and record sales were achieved. The whole system allows us to process orders far more efficiently. So it’s well worth a visit – http://www.cullimoresorganics.co.uk/
As we look ahead to October, we hope to purchase 2 new rams, put the rams with the ewes and shut in the bull into his winter quarters.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)