We are now into the second of a ten year agreement, in the Higher Level Stewardship Scheme (HLS) and as well as what seems like miles of hedge laying, we are committed to clearing an old pond on the farm, which has become very silted and overgrown. According to a neighbour who has farmed here since […]
Last week, we sold three, year old heifers to the Wildlife Trust in Bedfordshire and they are now enjoying life on Flitwick Moor, an intriguing wet woodland nature reserve to the north-east of Flitwick. This is a place where, in the past, peat was cut and iron-rich spring water sold as a blood tonic. The cattle will help to keep […]
I’ve written about ragwort here before but I make no apologies for doing it again. There’s a lot of stuff in life that is as good as you make it and pulling ragwort is one, although I would definitely add – as long as you’re not doing it for too long. Our hay crop is looking […]
As usual, we fail to predict the arrival of our first calf. After ten years of doing this we still fumble around for some kind of certainty to replace the ‘well sometime soon’ when asked exactly when the calves will arrive.Last Sunday morning Alan arrived (name suggested by daughter; don’t know why). A sturdy bull […]
Turns out I was wrong about the supply of barn swallows and house martins in a post last week. I had thought we’d exhausted this year’s batch and with it the warmer days of summer.After some significant amount of walking about after calves, I managed to get all the herd into our field called ‘Wassledine’. They had […]
I think we may be approaching some state of readiness for the coming cold and damp. Actually it’s pretty cool and wet this morning but clearly only the very first hint of autumn is upon us so far. Our readiness amounts to having the cattle shed clear, grass cutting pretty much done, hay and straw safely in […]
It’s been a while coming, but we are very pleased to let you know that we will soon have fresh beef to sell once again, produced from the Wassledine herd of Red Poll cattle. After almost three months out on the grass the herd is looking great – glossy and gleaming, especially after recent rain. […]
A strangely murky, grey, May day last Tuesday; the Chilterns invisible, usually a sign of bad winter weather on the way. The greyness served to highlight the intensity of green – the only other colour on offer today. The view from the barn is in green and white. Two grass fields in the foreground, huge arable fields in the distance, separated by […]
Whilst making a hurdle in the barn yesterday, I became aware of the wonderful screeching of swifts; a sound I’ve been waiting to hear for a fortnight or so and probably missing since their disappearance last August. Sticking my head into the brilliant sunshine and looking straight up, there, at around 100 feet, were a gang of thirty swirling, […]
I spent most of the morning wrestling with a tractor that died last night – in a gateway, with a trailer, blocking a neighbour’s drive. Thanks to John of Town Farm Garage (the best place to take your car for a service), who, rather than going home at 6.30 on a Friday, volunteered to tow […]