Archived News

8th May 2010

The extra diligence in the days after farrowing has paid off and Prudence has accepted her piglets and is feeding them all well. Seven days later Phoebe gave birth to thirteen piglets in a couple of hours without any trouble, so we now have the grand sum of 27 piglets which will be sold as weaners at the end of May.

The piglets have grown so quickly and are inquisitive and strong.  It is really great to see which of them roll over and like a scratch just like their father; I think it’s those which we will keep! 

The Belted Galloways have been busy calving.  Unfortunately there’s a predominance of bull calves so far; 5 bull calves, 1 heifer calf and one heifer calf which died soon after birth.  This calf was born in the early hours of the morning and had been licked clean by the cow, but maybe just not quickly enough to keep the airways clear.  It’s sad to lose a calf at any time, but probably more so at the birth, after 9 months of pregnancy and all the effort the cow endured to give birth.

I spent the last two Thursdays with Michael and Kathy Fordham at their butchers shop packing and labelling beef.    It’s always good to get out and meet other farmers and butchers and in a few hours we put the World to rights!

We have a good chat about farming and various diversification projects and I was interested to hear about Kathy and Michael’s new project which aims to move their on-farm butchers shop (which is a little off the beaten track), into the nearby village.  They hope to offer a new service to locals, whose village store closed 18 years ago.  If the project comes to fruition, the Fordham’s new shop would sell fresh meat and eggs, ice cream, cheese and possibly vegetables. As Michael said, farmers have to keep moving forward and changing with the times.   Their current shop on the farm has served them well for three years, but they know they cannot be complacent and need to expand in order to thrive and in effect, to subsidise a tenanted farming enterprise.

On each of the Thursday’s we packed three sides of beef and the following Friday mornings, my kitchen became a hub of activity as friends, neighbours and newcomers all came together for coffee, home-made cakes and of course to collect their beef!  I have a little rest now from lifting boxes of beef, until the end of summer when my next beef will be available.