May continued much in the same vein as April weather wise, with long hot days and very little rain fall. With all the Bank Holidays in May it’s always nice to take things slightly easier after the busy lambing period. But there’s always something to be done on the farm and as you will see, May is still a busy month.
The ewes all need trimming around their tails at some point in May (this is known as dagging), to keep the sheep clean. This is very labour intensive as it all needs to be done by hand.
We managed to get all of the sheep sheared early in the month, which is always a big relief as the hot humid weather makes the ewes lie down a lot and the lambs can’t feed from them, which in turn means the lambs don’t grow fast enough.
We also managed to gain permission to cut some rushes early on our Countryside Stewardship land. Usually you can’t cut any until 1st July, because of nesting birds, but we made the case that to control the rushes we needed to cut them early. We walked the land prior to cutting it to check that there were no nesting birds. In addition to cutting this rush land, we also managed to make 20 acres of good quality silage which will prove crucial to feed the cattle indoors during the winter months – this is just the start of the hay / silage making operations.
Meanwhile we continue to move sheep on a regular basis to keep them on fresh pastures and prevent any disease problems. This often means moving electric fences, to stop sheep getting into the ditches.
The weather continued to be hot and dry throughout the month with very little rainfall and looking ahead to June we hope for some rain to make the grass growing for hay making, but not too much to saturate the ground. Farmers are never happy with the weather.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
April - Cullimores Organics Farm News
April brought about a massive change in the weather, a real surprise and treat for everyone, warm sunny days (but still cold at night). What a real treat it is to be able to wear a t-shirt after all the cold of the winter, this now seemed like a distant memory as daytime temperatures reached 20c.
Lambing was nearing the end in April and it had been a successful year with all the lambs out at grass and growing at an alarming rate. Just 1 triplet hanging on until nearly the end of April, she had 3 very large and strong lambs.
The weather was absolutely perfect in April for grass growth with warm sunny days and some warm rain at night. This meant that we now had enough grass to let all the cattle out into the fields on the 14th April, about 2 weeks later than usual. This is my favourite time of year, seeing all your hard work of the winter flourishing in large open spaces is truly a very special feeling.
With mainly dry weather throughout April, markets were very busy especially around Easter with record sales being achieved, lamb proving ever popular for that extra special Easter meal.
Looking ahead to May, we hope to be able to shear all of our ewes, and possibly start to make some silage, all weather dependant though and for this we keep our fingers firmly crossed.
April brought about a massive change in the weather, a real surprise and treat for everyone, warm sunny days (but still cold at night). What a real treat it is to be able to wear a t-shirt after all the cold of the winter, this now seemed like a distant memory as daytime temperatures reached 20c.
Lambing was nearing the end in April and it had been a successful year with all the lambs out at grass and growing at an alarming rate. Just 1 triplet hanging on until nearly the end of April, she had 3 very large and strong lambs.
The weather was absolutely perfect in April for grass growth with warm sunny days and some warm rain at night. This meant that we now had enough grass to let all the cattle out into the fields on the 14th April, about 2 weeks later than usual. This is my favourite time of year, seeing all your hard work of the winter flourishing in large open spaces is truly a very special feeling.
With mainly dry weather throughout April, markets were very busy especially around Easter with record sales being achieved, lamb proving ever popular for that extra special Easter meal.
Looking ahead to May, we hope to be able to shear all of our ewes, and possibly start to make some silage, all weather dependant though and for this we keep our fingers firmly crossed.
March - Cullimores Organics Farm News
March brought about a change in the weather as we moved from much colder conditions to much wetter conditions (and when I say wet I mean wet, the rain just fell and fell all through March).
March is traditionally a very tense time on the farm as all the ewes are now very heavily pregnant and are close to lambing, they need constant supervision prior to lambing to see that all there needs are met. During lambing they are supervised up to 22hours a day and assisted in birth as necessary. John, our senior partner starts his shift at 4am and works through the day until 7pm, when Jamie takes over and works through until around 1am depending on how busy things are. This system works very well and you get very few lambing between 1am and 4am.
March / April lambing is by far the best way – the grass is always there at this time and the ewes and lambs can go straight out to grass when they are strong enough, this also keeps the milk coming to feed the lambs.
Should you want to know more about lambing why not check out our video diary which can be found following this link.
http://www.mikelusmore.com/lambing.html
Elsewhere on the farm, farmers markets have to continue during lambing and an extra special effort is needed to keep everything going, markets remained very busy despite the weather. We had a very busy end to the month with unprecedented levels of orders coming in for Easter, which is now only a week away.
March brought about a change in the weather as we moved from much colder conditions to much wetter conditions (and when I say wet I mean wet, the rain just fell and fell all through March).
March is traditionally a very tense time on the farm as all the ewes are now very heavily pregnant and are close to lambing, they need constant supervision prior to lambing to see that all there needs are met. During lambing they are supervised up to 22hours a day and assisted in birth as necessary. John, our senior partner starts his shift at 4am and works through the day until 7pm, when Jamie takes over and works through until around 1am depending on how busy things are. This system works very well and you get very few lambing between 1am and 4am.
March / April lambing is by far the best way – the grass is always there at this time and the ewes and lambs can go straight out to grass when they are strong enough, this also keeps the milk coming to feed the lambs.
Should you want to know more about lambing why not check out our video diary which can be found following this link.
http://www.mikelusmore.com/lambing.html
Elsewhere on the farm, farmers markets have to continue during lambing and an extra special effort is needed to keep everything going, markets remained very busy despite the weather. We had a very busy end to the month with unprecedented levels of orders coming in for Easter, which is now only a week away.
February - Cullimores Farm News
Cold and windy weather continued to dominate through February, with lots of cold dry days and one particular day of horrendous snow storms, which caused chaos on the roads for making deliveries.
February is traditionally the month when we look towards housing our sheep in anticipation of lambing time, they are all pregnancy scanned to tell us how many lambs each ewe is carrying. This is a vital management tool for us, so that we can feed the correct amount of cake to each ewe and avoid the lambs being very large or very small. When they are scanned they are then separated into pens according to how many lambs they are carrying and housed indoors until they give birth. The ewes scanned and around 190% which is exceptional.
Meanwhile the cows continue to calve with minimal assistance, but it is vital that there is someone on hand to assist if necessary. We have had up to date one of the best calving periods ever – with the calves being very strong and healthy right from the word go, and we have had 3 sets of twins which is very rare.
Farmers markets continue to be very busy and trade is brisk. Our beef and lamb burgers continue to be as popular as ever on the cross on Fridays. Stroud farmers market has also gone from strength to strength with Maggie continuing to strengthen sales and fulfilling all of our customers needs.
Cold and windy weather continued to dominate through February, with lots of cold dry days and one particular day of horrendous snow storms, which caused chaos on the roads for making deliveries.
February is traditionally the month when we look towards housing our sheep in anticipation of lambing time, they are all pregnancy scanned to tell us how many lambs each ewe is carrying. This is a vital management tool for us, so that we can feed the correct amount of cake to each ewe and avoid the lambs being very large or very small. When they are scanned they are then separated into pens according to how many lambs they are carrying and housed indoors until they give birth. The ewes scanned and around 190% which is exceptional.
Meanwhile the cows continue to calve with minimal assistance, but it is vital that there is someone on hand to assist if necessary. We have had up to date one of the best calving periods ever – with the calves being very strong and healthy right from the word go, and we have had 3 sets of twins which is very rare.
Farmers markets continue to be very busy and trade is brisk. Our beef and lamb burgers continue to be as popular as ever on the cross on Fridays. Stroud farmers market has also gone from strength to strength with Maggie continuing to strengthen sales and fulfilling all of our customers needs.
Sunday, January 3, 2010
January Cullimores Organics Farm News
With all the Christmas festivities over, January hit us hard, with temperatures falling to an all time low. With some parts of the country experiencing temperatures as low as -21.6 c, this made getting out and about a dangerous occupation, and we had one market cancelled in Gloucester and the ones that we did attend were very quiet. We did however manage to fulfil all of our deliveries to restaurants, pubs, nurseries and shops.
The sheep managed to survive through the snow and cold weather, and actually tend to thrive in such conditions although they eat twice as much. It also makes life easier to take food to them when the ground is hard through frost. Cattle also seem to stay much healthier during colder weather and the fattening animals are doing unbelievably well and with no concentrates being fed they are thriving purely on our excellent silage.
January also sees the start of our calving season and the first chance to get a glimpse of the calves produced by our new stock bull – Grove Wellington 49. The results are staggering and the calves are big and strong and healthy, and seem to just arrive with no assistance from us. There are always jobs to be done where calves are concerned and each one needs to be registered online with DEFRA so that they receive a passport which stays with them and identifies them for life. All time consuming work, but it ties in quite nicely with the whole traceability aspect of our meat – giving you absolute confidence in our produce.
We also had our annual bovine Tuberculosis test in Jan and we were all clear, and that job is now out of the way for another year.
John, our senior partner was proved right about the harsh winter weather, I guess you get to know these things when you are so close to nature. Let’s hope that the snow and cold have gone and warmer drier weather is on its
The sheep managed to survive through the snow and cold weather, and actually tend to thrive in such conditions although they eat twice as much. It also makes life easier to take food to them when the ground is hard through frost. Cattle also seem to stay much healthier during colder weather and the fattening animals are doing unbelievably well and with no concentrates being fed they are thriving purely on our excellent silage.
January also sees the start of our calving season and the first chance to get a glimpse of the calves produced by our new stock bull – Grove Wellington 49. The results are staggering and the calves are big and strong and healthy, and seem to just arrive with no assistance from us. There are always jobs to be done where calves are concerned and each one needs to be registered online with DEFRA so that they receive a passport which stays with them and identifies them for life. All time consuming work, but it ties in quite nicely with the whole traceability aspect of our meat – giving you absolute confidence in our produce.
We also had our annual bovine Tuberculosis test in Jan and we were all clear, and that job is now out of the way for another year.
John, our senior partner was proved right about the harsh winter weather, I guess you get to know these things when you are so close to nature. Let’s hope that the snow and cold have gone and warmer drier weather is on its
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
December Farm News
December is our busiest month of the year and traditionally the most profitable, with people wanting all their Christmas meat delivered it is certainly all hands to the pump. We are very pleased to say that it all went very well and we had our best year to date. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our customers for you continued and loyal support throughout the year and at Christmas.
Elsewhere on the farm we have for the first time got some early lambing ewes, that are due to lamb in early Jan / Feb, the idea of this is that we will be able to stagger our lambing and have lamb available for more of the year. The daily grind of routine work goes on, with the cattle having to be bedded down with straw in their pens and fed everyday. The sheep are still outside in the fields and are being fed hay that was made in the summer. The sheep will stay outside until they are pregnancy scanned and housed in Feb, ready to lamb in April.
The weather is just on the change as I write this and the milder weather is giving way to much colder and frostier mornings. John our senior partner predicted a cold and harsh winter some months ago, let’s hope he is proved wrong.
Elsewhere on the farm we have for the first time got some early lambing ewes, that are due to lamb in early Jan / Feb, the idea of this is that we will be able to stagger our lambing and have lamb available for more of the year. The daily grind of routine work goes on, with the cattle having to be bedded down with straw in their pens and fed everyday. The sheep are still outside in the fields and are being fed hay that was made in the summer. The sheep will stay outside until they are pregnancy scanned and housed in Feb, ready to lamb in April.
The weather is just on the change as I write this and the milder weather is giving way to much colder and frostier mornings. John our senior partner predicted a cold and harsh winter some months ago, let’s hope he is proved wrong.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
November at Cullimores Organic Farm
November started off unusually dry, this could only mean one thing, the rain was on its way. The second half of the month saw record rainfall for the time of year, with parts of the country experiencing the highest rainfall levels since records began. With wide spread flooding throughout Cumbria, with Cockermouth being the worst hit, you couldn’t help but feel for the plight of the livestock farmers in particular.
We began the month feeding all cattle outside in the fields with hay in ring feeders, at this stage the ground was lovely and dry. It quickly changed as it often does at this time of year. The rain never stopped falling and the cattle had to come up to the farm and be shut in the buildings.
This means more winter duties need to be done such as bedding down and feeding, but at least the cattle are clean and dry and reasonably happy.
The sheep have also been moved onto drier ground, but will remain outside until the middle of January if conditions allow. They will be fed hay outside in racks when the grass is not edible because of frost. Sheep are much healthier outside than indoors, and should only come indoors for lambing time.
As December approaches our attentions turn to Christmas, and fulfilling all of the orders for our Salt marsh produce and keeping up with extra markets, in many ways this is our busiest time of year.
REMEMBER PLACE YOUR ORDERS BY 14TH DECEMBER TO AVOID disappointment .
We began the month feeding all cattle outside in the fields with hay in ring feeders, at this stage the ground was lovely and dry. It quickly changed as it often does at this time of year. The rain never stopped falling and the cattle had to come up to the farm and be shut in the buildings.
This means more winter duties need to be done such as bedding down and feeding, but at least the cattle are clean and dry and reasonably happy.
The sheep have also been moved onto drier ground, but will remain outside until the middle of January if conditions allow. They will be fed hay outside in racks when the grass is not edible because of frost. Sheep are much healthier outside than indoors, and should only come indoors for lambing time.
As December approaches our attentions turn to Christmas, and fulfilling all of the orders for our Salt marsh produce and keeping up with extra markets, in many ways this is our busiest time of year.
REMEMBER PLACE YOUR ORDERS BY 14TH DECEMBER TO AVOID disappointment .
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