Apparently it has been the driest January to June for 80 years! The grass has now nearly all gone and we have started to feed the livestock out in the fields. Our yields of fodder for the winter silage and hay are much lowere than in normal years and the dry weather has pushed prices higher for all farm produce, with hay up 50% already.  Luckily we should have enough for all our animals and not have to buy any.

Harvest Time
The harvest got off to a good start with all the Oilseed rape harvested.  The yields were not too bad given the weather, being about 10% down on previous years.  Normally we chop the rape straw as it is not very good for bedding, but this year as straw is in short supply we have baled it and will mix it with wheat straw to bed the animals in winter.

Our oats are also all harvested and safely in the barn.  Again yields were down by about 10 to 15% bur the good news is that the price has risen dramtically and we have sold the oats for £134/tonne whereas last year we sold  at only £74 per tonne.  We have baled all the oat straw for feeding to the cattle in the winter.

The wheat harvest was going well until about a week ago when rain stopped play! Yields are down about 15 to 20%.which has created some panic in the world wheat markets as the russians have reported very poor harvest results due to drought.  The result in the price is that last year we averaged £100 per tonne for our wheat and this year, with about 70% sold, we are averaging £137 per tonne.
Again we are baling all the straw for use in the winter.

We have started to spread the compost from our own composting facility, using waste from the local council onto the fields, so that many of you who live locally and  recycle using your green bin are helping to fertilise next years crops.

As soon as the crops are harvested  we start to cultivate the land and get it ready for next years crops. The first crop we plant is the Oilseed rape and this will be planted before the end of August.

This year we have some grass to plant and this will be done in early September followed by planting the oats and wheat and the cycle starts again.

Local wildlife
As I drive around the estate I notice how many beautiful hares there are about this year.   We also nearly always see wild birds of prey and a few days ago we saw a Muntjac deer.

We have had a look around for some sloe's to make sloe gin but there are very few about this year.  We did however find a wild plum tree that was loaded with small very sweet plums – delicious!

Getting the sheep in peak condition
On the livestock front all the lambs are now weaned and the ewes have been sorted out according to body condition with the thinner ones getting extra feed.

We have selected some sheep that we will mate on the 24th september 2010 so that they all give birth during February half term in 2011.

The ram is already running with a few ewes who will lamb in December, so hopefully we will have a few baby lambs for our live nativity story in the Farm Village. The breed we use are called Dorsets as unlike other breeds of sheep who only breed once a year, the Dorset will lamb 'out of season'.

We will also be going to a sheep sale in early September where we intend to buy another 200 sheep that we will lamb in April 2011 and then sell them with their lambs 'at foot' to other farmers to continue to rear.

I took all the wool into the depot the other week and the average price is likely to be about 60p per kilo with the average sheep fleece being about 3kg this is very much a by product nowadays. To think that just over 100 years ago some of the wealthiest people in the country were large scale sheep farmers!!! Many of the large impressive buildings in the north east of England were built with the proceeds of the wool trade.

Looking after Ben
Ben our retired Shire horse has got two new field companions, Freddie and Harry who are alpacas and they seem to get along very well. We had the vet to Ben who had gone lame last week, there was nothing obviously wrong with his foot and the medication seems to have done the trick. The old country saying 'No foot, no horse'' was one that was often heard, especially when horses like Ben were relied upon to carry out all the work in the fields.

As you can see its been a busy time but will keep you updated with our next blog.

The recent extremely dry weather is affecting the crops, such as the pumpkins we have put in for our Pumpkin Festival in October.  They are growing well but are very dry so we will need to irrigate next week.

We have been busy on the farm making hay and silage.  Silage is where we cut the grass and then leave it flat on the ground for 24 hours.   We then bale the headlands of each field while it is still green and wrap it with plastic to make silage. The plastic makes it air tight and so the grass ‘pickles’.

For hay we then go through and spread it about so the sun can dry the grass which we do three or four times.   We then rake it into rows and a contractor bales it into big bales that weigh about 250kg or a quater of a tonne. The grass has to be absolutely dry or it will go mouldy in the bale.  The hay is then stacked in a barn and used to feed  the animals in the winter.  Last year we ran out of hay and had to buy some in so this year we are making as much as we can.

We weaned the lambs that were born in February half term at our February Frolics event  and have sold most of the lambs which currently fetch about £75 each. The ewes are put onto a field with not much grass to dry up their milk and get them in shape for the next breeding season, starting in September.

The cattle are all grazing the fields around the farm but with the dry weather the grass is starting to disappear.

It is also time to get ready for harvest which will be in about another 4 weeks.  We are cleaning out the grainstore, fumigating and servicing all the machinery so we are in good shape when it is time to get going!

Composting at Willows
We have recently started a composting facility at Willows where we take green waste, food and newspapers from the the local council and turn it into compost.  The first compost, made from local waste, is ready to be moved to the field for spreading after the harvest.

At the Farm Village
Our MOOvellous Members event went well and was enjoyed by all and we are putting the final touches to our Summer Spectacular programme with our A-maize-ing Maze growing nicely.

It may be summer but we have just been away to help Santa choose all the toys for this Grotto at Willows – so we’re already thinking twinkling lights and reindeer!  And there will be an extra special surprise too this winter with Willows Magical Ice Rink a new attraction.