News from North Down Farm
Follow Ernest Pig on Twitter
|
1 February
2012 - First calf of the year
Rufus, the first calf of the year arrived a week ago. He had some
trouble straightening his front joints for his first day of his life.
This self corrects and happens sometimes in new-born calves. He's now
engaging all four legs with gusto and running around with his tail
flying like a pennant.
We've got Ella Pig settled in her maternity quarters as she's due to
farrow in about a week. She just wants to eat and lie down at the
moment. Unlike some other sows I could mention, Esmerelda and Esther,
who are practically jumping the gate at breakfast time in their
anxiety not to miss out.
Weather: Freezing fog
8 January 2012
- Piglets in the middle of the night
Petronella had a litter of eight piglets in the very early hours
of this morning, after a long and restless labour. They are all
healthy and doing well. We are all having a well-earned kip now!
Weather: Breezy and dry
6
January 2012 - Twelfth Night piglets
Prudence farrowed her 6th litter tonight, 10 spotty little
squeakers. It was a very straightforward labour and she was very
relaxed. This is the first litter our young boar, Ernest, has fathered
and it is the 67th litter born on the farm.
The weather has calmed down now after days of storms, gales and
torrential rain. We lost a dozen old apple trees in the orchard
which is a shame. Although there are over 200 still standing so that's
a positive! We had to go and saw up and drag away a fir tree that had
blown out of a hedgerow and into the lane.
Now we are waiting for Petronella Pig to farrow and she is a week
late....
Weather: Calm after the storm
1 January 2012 -
Happy New Year
Wishing everyone a
Happy 2012 and a Merry Christmas
from all at North Down Farm
20 December 2011 - Keeping dry
The calves left today to go and live on a farm in Wales. The rest
of the herd are now in their winter housing, snug and dry after all
this torrential rain. Four pregnant sows are also in their maternity
ward, pottering about and sleeping a lot. There is a lot of outdoor
work to be done at this time of the year; daily mucking and strawing
out, moving pigs to drier paddocks, clearing gutters and keeping an
eye on water pipes, and a permanent eye on the weather forecast.
Weather: Windy and damp
2 December 2011 - Mild weather benefits
It's still very mild and the grass is still growing: an inch and a
half in the last four weeks.
I had to mow all the lawns again at the end of November!
This
means that the cattle are still out to pasture, something we've
never managed before this late in the year.
This time last year everything was frozen solid, snowy and icy.
But this year spring flowers are already blooming in the garden.
Things are quiet on the farm at the moment, a quiet lull before
more piglets are due.
Weather: Breezy and cloudy
5 November 2011 -
Winter preparations
It's all very autumnal and pretty on the farm. We've had another
bumper crop of cider apples, hips, haws and hedgerow berries. There is
even a blue hyacinth in flower! Although we've had a lot of torrential
rain recently it's been very mild and so the grass is still growing
and so the cattle are still out in the fields.
The weaners of Litter 66 have all gone off to new homes now and for
the first time in ages there are no piglets on the farm. The next
litter is due at Christmas though....
We are well prepared for the winter now with a store of feed and
bedding, a new cattle track built and outdoor water pipes laid
underground - hurrah, no more barrowing out water in barrels when we
get a below zero freeze!
Weather: Sunny
3 October 2011 -
Keeping cool
21 pigs have
left us over the last few weeks and trotted off to play nicely at
their new homes on other farms in Devon and Somerset. Young Ernest Pig
is growing well and is nearly as big as his current girlfriend
Prudence. He is 7 months old now and she is 4 years, so I think he's
going to be very large when he's a fully grown boar. All the pigs have
enjoyed the recent heat wave, loafing about and wallowing in mud up to
their noses. The sheep liked it less and spent most of their time
lying as flat as possible in the long grass where it was coolest. The
cattle stayed in the shade of the hedges mostly. The humans had to
keep working though despite the heat!
Poppy Pig has become the Houdini pig of the farm, having escaped her
paddock daily even though it is fenced like Fort Knox. She was very
pleased with herself and waited by the gate to be let back into her
paddock by us humans. She knows when to come back for her pig nuts.
And we now know how she managed to wriggle out and have put a stop to
that!
Weather: Heat wave
10 September 2011 - Leaving us to form new flocks and herds
We waved a group of Shetland ewe lambs off to their new home in
Somerset last weekend, to start a new flock. And then we waved off two
breeding gilts to their new home in Pembrokeshire today, to join
another herd. We're always delighted to see our livestock go to good
homes with caring owners. The lambs were chosen for their coloured
fleeces: a mixture of browns and blacks and pretty white socks and
noses! The gilts were chosen for their Muriel bloodline,
their good conformation and long lop ears.
Weather: Windy, sunny and very warm
26 August 2011 - 11 new piglets, what a lot of spots
Portia farrowed her
4th litter last night. The 11 new piglets are fine, even the tiny,
tiny little girl who is half the size of her siblings. She has got
pole position on a front teat and is ruthlessly holding off all
comers. The piglets squabble like mad over teats when they are this
new and clamber over each other and generally push and shove. After a
few days they tend to settle to the same teat or two all the time, so
I am pleased that this little gilt has got herself a good position.
Portia has 16 teats for her 11 piglets so everything should be fine.
Once the piglets are all settled into the routine of the same teat
Portia will shut down the spare ones and just produce milk out of the
11 required for the size of her litter. Pretty clever really.
Weather: Torrential downpour
21 August - Weaning and yelling and running about
Well, Esmerelda Pig has farrowed and now we are waiting for Portia
who is due this week. All the recent litters are doing well and
scampering happily about. Prudence Pig's month old piglets are
operating in a gang and when they're not mobbed up they are following
one another like 11 beads on a string. Good entertainment for them and
us. We've being repairing fencing, thanks to those pigs!, and hanging
new gates. And the Shetland lambs were weaned last week which resulted
in 48 hours of yelling from opposite ends of the farm. We take the
ewes as far away from the lambs as is practicable because they will
try to get back together if it is at all possible. Then suddenly it is
quiet as they all get used to their new circumstances. The ewes are
now being flushed on the best grass to get them into the tip-top
condition for when tupping starts again in October.
Weather: Warm with blue skies
3 August 2011 - Up all night
Firstly, there are lots of new photos on the PHOTOS page.
We're all propping our eyes open today because Ella Pig farrowed in
the middle of the night. And she took over six hours which is much
longer than we would expect for an experienced sow. Nothing was wrong
and the piglets are all strong, healthy and very vocal. But she just
took her time and that's alright with us. ZZZZzzzz.
Weather: Heat wave!
1 August 2011 - Arrivals and departures
A busy week or two here. We got the hay in a day before it started
raining cats and pigs...relief all round. Enid Pig had a litter of 9
piglets
and all are doing very well. They even ignored their heat lamp
because it's been so hot. We waved goodbye to Brimstone, the younger
of our two Devon Ruby bulls. He has gone to live in North Devon where
he will have a lot of ladies to squire. The sheep are getting their
feet checked; 91 sheep so that's a lot of feet! And 11 weaners
went off to their new homes in south Devon and Somerset. We are
awaiting the patter of more tiny trotters any day now as both Ella and
Esmerelda Pigs are due. Phew.
Weather: Overcast and humid
11 July 2011 - Litter 62 arrives at last
Piglets arrive when they are ready and litter number 62, overdue
by a couple of days, finally started to arrive at 8 o'clock this
morning. Prudence Pig had 12 squeaky, spotted, adorable babies. They
know what they want and what they want is milk, see right. It's quite
a scramble as they jostle for a teat and then a few minutes later they
just fall asleep still attached.
Weather: Hot and sunny
10 July 2011 - Waiting patiently, or even Prudently
I have planted some more saplings to add extra shade to the pig
paddocks. And I have been thistle thwacking. In fact I thwacked so
hard I broke the blade of the scythe in half! We are still waiting for Prudence Pig to farrow, due any
minute now, and overdue by some days.
She is huge and doing a lot of grumbling. This will be her fifth
litter of piglets, when they decide to arrive.
Weather: Grey but very warm
28 June 2011 - Follow Ernest Pig on Twitter
Ernest Pig is now tweeting! Follow him here
Weather: Overcast and humid
20 June 2011 - Short haircuts all round
Dodging rain showers we were lucky with a dry windy day and
managed to get all the ewes shorn yesterday. Eighty-eight sheep are
now looking cool and slim and ready for summer.
Weather: Sunny and breezy
12 June 2011 - The arrival of Ernest
We have just bought a new young pedigree boar from the Alsa herd
in Essex. He's a lovely handsome chap so our girlie sows are in for a
treat when he is old enough to work. We wanted another boar that was a
different bloodline to our Patrick boars.
There are only four male Gloucester Old Spot bloodlines; Patrick,
Gerald, Rufus and Sambo, which is one of the reasons this breed is so
rare.
Ernest is only thirteen weeks old and has some growing to do, but
he is already very friendly and rather large.
Weather: Very wet
6 June 2011 - Loud and proud
Oz the Calf was born a week ago and is the last of this year's
calves.
He's called Oz because he was born under a double rainbow and we
couldn't call him Dorothy! Brightness, his mum, is a first time mother
and couldn't quite get the hang of the idea that she had to push.
Consequently she had a much longer labour than normal but she and Oz
are now very relaxed. Although there has been some loud, proud,
maternal booming mooing.
Weather: Warm and sunny
3 May 2011 - Spring has sprung...
Spring is almost a month early. The cider orchard blossom has been
and gone, the swallows are back nesting in the barns and we've had
larks and herons flying over the pig paddocks.
Lambing ended early as well, thanks to the diligence of the rams!
We have 55 bouncy lambs, all growing fast. They have no respect
for personal space and like to clamber all over us and pull our hair
and zips. Benson, our 10 year old black ram, died of old
age last week. He was very sweet natured and liked to follow us around
when we were doing outdoor jobs. He would suddenly appear under your
elbow interested in whatever you were doing. We will miss him.
Weather: Sunny and windy
3 April 2011 - 4 weeks, 52 lambs, 13 piglets and 2 calves later
A busy month is now behind us with the arrival of all of the
above. All but 6 were born at night so we are short on sleep but very
happy nevertheless. The new lamb families are causing amusement and
consternation in equal measure depending on whether you are a human or
a sheep. We humans are hugely entertained by the Olympic standard
pinging of lambs as they rocket down the hill but their mothers are
very concerned by such frivolity and go racing after them calling them
back. Lambs seem to have reverse and forward gears that operate at the
same time. The new calves are gorgeous. There has been a lot of
foghorn booming from their mums, a call of love and pride. And the
piglets are adorable, as all piglets are, and their mothers are
snuffly and grunty with maternal satisfaction.
A lot of weaners went off to new homes this month, in Devon and as far
as Hereford, including a pair of young breeding gilts who joined
another pig herd.
Spotted the first swallows of the year zooming over the farm late this
afternoon.
Weather: Windy and damp
2 March 2011 - Lambing starts - very cute!
Lambing started today
with
the arrival of Cinders and Embers, daughters of Spark Sheep.
They were born in the orchard under a hedge where it was sheltered and
well camouflaged, on a perfect spring day. Shetland lambs are often
born nearly black and then change colour as they grow older. Although
Embers already has striking white patches on her face, giving her a
bandit mask, and two white socks
and a white tip to her tail!
Weather: Bright, sunny and cold
10 February 2011 - Coming births and old age
Lambing starts in three weeks and we are well into our maternity
feeding regime for the pregnant ewes. They get 'ewe nuts' twice a day
now to help them get enough protein and minerals to have healthy
babies. The girls recognise the sound of the back door and start
yelling as soon as they hear it - a chorus of what time do you call
this? - no matter whether it is feeding time or not. They are looking
woolly, well and fat. Sadly, two of our ewes died of old age recently.
Linnet was nine and Moll was eight. I remember Moll being born at 11pm
in a rain storm and she always liked to be tickled under her chin.
Shetland sheep, being a primitive rather than a commercial breed, live
quite long lives for sheep. At the moment the oldest girls in our
flock are eleven and going strong.
Weather: Drizzly fog
21 January 2011 - Off to new pastures
All the Devon Ruby beef steers have now been sold and the recently weaned calves
went off to their new home on a farm in Wiltshire just before
Christmas. So we now have
just the main herd of breeding cattle, with calves due in the spring.
It has been a busy few weeks of departures because a lot of pigs went to new homes
as well, including a lovely in-pig sow and several litters of weaners.
Our Shetland ewes are starting to look pregnant and we have started
feeding them up. Their lambs are due in six weeks time which will be
very exciting. I love lambing.
I've just been watching wild doves doing beautiful relay flying from one of
the barn doors into the garden and back. There is a growing colony
living in a stand of fir trees by the farmyard gate.
Weather: -5° and frosty
31 December 2010 - Hohoho
Wishing you all a
Happy 2011 and a Merry Christmas
from all at North Down Farm
7
December 2010 - Isaac Newton would be proud
Last night, with the outdoor temperature at minus 7, Elsie Pig
gave birth to a litter of eleven. She was warmly tucked up in a
straw-filled wooden ark inside a barn with a heat lamp. We rigged up a
curtain over the ark's door for extra warmth and she worked out in no
time that this was a Pig Flap, working just like a Cat Flap but on a
larger scale. Isaac Newton would be delighted that we have adapted his
feline invention for pigs. Elsie and her babies are all doing well and
are very snug and cosy sheltered away from this bitterly cold weather.
We've had more than 400 piglets now. Number 400 himself was born three
weeks ago in the litter before this one.
This harsh weather does make more work on the farm.
Our main problem is the frozen water troughs and outdoor taps. I have
pondered many a cunning plan to improve this but the one that works
the best is the blow torch and pick axe method. Blow torch the frozen
tap. Bash out the ice in the pig troughs with the axe. Fill up 25
litre water drums and barrow them out. It’s all brute force and
endurance here. And straw. All the pigs and cattle are well strawed
out every day. The sheep are so well insulated that the frost doesn't
melt on their fleeces.
1
November 2010 - Weighing your pigs with a tape measure
We are pretty good at gauging how much the pigs weigh by sight.
But I thought it was time I double checked this, particularly for the
adult boars. So I got out my tape measure and got weighing. And
it turns out we had estimated correctly to within 4 kilos. Pedro the
Boar (see right) weighs in at a magnificent 271 kilos or 42st 9lbs! So you can see why weighing a pig on scales might be
difficult, even if you could persuade them to stand still long enough
and find large enough scales.
With the tape measure method you measure from the base of the ears to
the base of the tail and then again around the girth just behind the
front legs. In Pedro's case this equals 174cm long and 150cm wide.
Then you apply the following formula: square the girth measurement,
multiply this result by the length measurement and then multiply that
total by 69.3 and voila, you have the weight of your pig to within 3%
accuracy. And if all of this arithmetic seems too much then you'll be
pleased to know that weighing weaners is much simpler as you just
measure around the middle and consult a chart because they aren't
fully grown.
4 October 2010 - Tupping the ewes
The Shetland rams went in with the ewes today. We have selected
two groups of girls based on their pedigree, age, previous history,
health and so on. Jack the Hat, our gentle middle-aged gent, is
getting half and Magwitch, our bouncy young ram, is getting the rest.
He has never shagged before so he is for a treat.
It was hilarious.
Both rams began hopefully chasing their women who promptly ran away.
They have settled down a bit now.
We are retiring Pepperpot and Benson, our old gents, who are nine now,
although they don’t think they should be retired. Pepperpot still
occasionally chases me round a tree. Shetland sheep can only get
pregnant from the autumn onwards when the days start getting short.
This goes back to their primitive Viking heritage; the idea being that
they will then give birth when the new spring grass is coming in
giving the best chance to the newborn lambs. Quite sensible of Mother
Nature really.
23 September 2010 - Our 50th and 51st litters
Last week we had our 50th litter of piglets and last
night our 51st. With thanks to Elvira and Edie Pigs and
Paddy the Boar! It is
always a wonderful thing to be present
for the birth, which can take from two to four hours. I usually sit in
the ark with the mother-to-be and help out if required. Piglets come
out every which way and sometimes arrive together in a rush of twos
and threes rather than one at a time. I towel them dry and put them
near their mother's teats. New born piglets are a feisty, scrambling
lot and are apt to totter off into the distance if not watched. Their
mother's tummy radiates a fantastic amount of heat which helps attract
the piglets to her teats. We also use heat lamps in the arks for the
piglets to settle under. Piglets aren't able to regulate their
temperatures when they are born so it is essential for them to have
somewhere warm, dry and safe. Sows don't lick their young dry the way
cows and sheep do. They wuffle at their babies and breathe on them to
help them bond, and they call them with a special grunt when it is
time for some milk. Sometimes piglets decide for themselves it is
time for some milk and it's very sweet watching very small
few-days-old piglets butt at
their mother's tummy to get her to roll onto her side.
1 September 2010 - Clubbing pig style
A group of sixteen weaners went up north last weekend to a pig club in
a village in the midlands. The pig club threw a party to
celebrate their pigs' arrival. Pig clubs are a great idea, where
people band together to share the purchase, feeding and looking after
the weaners they are raising for pork.
We got the winter hay in by the skin of our teeth after the
predicted forecast of five days of sun went horribly wrong on day four
and rain pelted down. Relief all round.
21 August 2010 - The curiosity of cows
Just come in from doing the afternoon livestock rounds. The cows are
always very friendly and today Blossom Calf undid a shoelace and
Bramble Cow pulled some string out of my back pocket. I expect this
means we are accepted as part of the herd!
1 August 2010 - Wallowing away
It is fabulously hot
here. It all looks like a Constable painting around us what with hay
cutting and harvesting and blue skies and swallows and wallowing pigs. Well, maybe
the last bit wasn’t in Constable but it is certainly here. I seem to
spend hours filling up pig water tanks and topping up their wallows.
Some pigs believe that even though their wallow is right in front of
them they should tip up their water tank and create a new one. And
some pigs, who will remain nameless ie. Perdita and Prudence, think
it is good fun to tip up their tank while you are refilling it, twice
on the trot. Or even trotter.
Lots of piglets are running around at the moment as Enid, Estella,
Prudence, Portia and Esther have all farrowed in the last few weeks.
Esther had a magnificent 16 piglets! We are now expecting expectant
Esmerelda and Petronella to do their thing and they are keeping us
waiting. And lots of pigs have gone to new homes in the last month;
seven went to East Devon to start a brand new breeding herd, many have
gone as weaners and two gilts went as pets.
6
July 2010 - She shears Shetland Sheep on the.....
On a very hot day, in fact. We finished the shearing about 10 days
ago and 91 girls are now much cooler and looking small and pretty
without their thick fleeces. There are certain essentials you need for
shearing, apart from clippers and a shearing mat to keep the sheep
comfortable. You need a lot of drinking water; it's thirsty work, and
a good lunch with some cake! Shetlands are often a completely
different colour underneath their wool and so it was a very nice
surprise to find that young Spark was a gingery brown on top and a
lovely silver below. This is known as a Silver Moorit and Spark has
recently grown into this combination as she has matured into an adult
ewe. I hand shear all the rams and wethers on the farm just to keep in practice.
Our friend Andrew was electric shearing about 10 ewes in half an hour
compared to my hand clipping one every 20-30 minutes. And that's quite
fast for hand shearing, so it shows how fast Andrew is!
18 June 2010 - Gloucester Old Spot pork internationally recognised as taste yardstick!
Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman today welcomed producers of
Gloucestershire Old Spots pork – also known as Gloucester Old Spots –
to the growing list of British specially protected foods and drink
that have gained specially protected status throughout Europe.
Gloucester Old Spot is the second product to gain accreditation under
the Traditional Speciality Guaranteed (TSG) classification of
Protected Food Names, after Traditional Farm fresh Turkey achieved
protection ten years ago. It is the latest in a series of 42 British
products such as Melton Mowbray pork pies and Cornish clotted cream to
win European protection and joins the ranks of Champagne and Parma Ham
in the register of Europe’s protected food and drink names. Gloucester
Old Spot pork has to come from pedigree pigs and the pork is
particularly special because the nature of the breed and the way they
are farmed mean that it scores higher for texture (tenderness) and
juiciness than conventionally produced pork. As the 42nd British
product to be added to the list of legally-protected names, Gloucester
Old Spots joins the likes of West Country Farmhouse Cheddar, Yorkshire
Forced Rhubarb and Cornish Sardines.
6
June 2010 - Is a pig snoring louder than a cat purring?
The answer has to be yes. Our farm cat has a deep motorbike-engine
rumbling purr but the sound of snoring pigs surpasses even that. It
can be almost musical, unlike human snoring, especially if a group of
pigs are all snoring together. And you can hear a pregnant sow
wheezing in her sleep from quite a long way away. If she's snoring
then she hasn't started farrowing so it's a useful noise when you are
checking on imminent births in the middle of the night. Ella Pig
finished farrowing earlier this evening. She was huge and very grumpy;
probably because she was so huge. But now she's a very grunty happy
new mother of eight piglets.
7
May 2010 - Comings and goings
We've finished calving with the arrival of Willow, a handsome little
bull calf, a week ago. And at the same time we had our 40th litter of
piglets, so the May Day weekend was a busy maternal one on the farm.
The spring grass has finally started growing long enough to please a
cow and so all of the cattle have now been turned out to pasture.
There was a lot of joyful bellowing and kicking up of heels and
prancing about.
Some weaned piglets and some pedigree breeding gilts are all going to
new owners this week. It's always very satisfying to wave them off to
good homes.
The cider apple blossom is just beginning to come out. We have over
200 apple trees and the different varieties don't all flower together
so there will be a glorious patchy cobweb of blossom over the orchard
for the next month or so. I was very excited to see wild deer grazing
in the orchard quite close to the farmhouse and also swimming in the
river.
6
April 2010 - Easter Monday baby
Just when I thought that waiting for Edna Cow to have her baby was
like watching the kettle not boil
she produced a lovely heifer calf late last night. We've named her
Blossom and she's already very bouncy even if she hasn't worked out
that front and reverse gears are not the same thing. Now we are
waiting for Robin Cow to calve imminently.....
4
April 2010 - Looking forward to nice things
Spring seems to have sprung all at once with daffodils and
snow drops all flowering prettily together. It's been a very, very long
winter. Consequently hay and straw are in short supply because the new grass
isn't growing yet which means the cattle can't be turned out. We seem
to be waiting for lots of things; Edna Cow to have her calf (due any
day but she's taking her time!), the fields to dry out so that we can
build some new fences, the grass to start growing (see above), the
rain to stop. So there is a lot to look forward to, including some
more piglets due in the next few weeks. The latest litter arrived
opportunely on Mother's Day!
2
March 2010 - Lots of mud, perhaps I should be keeping hippopotami
After a winter of torrential
rain we consequently have torrential mud. We had a meeting with the
pigs and all agreed that coming indoors into a barn for a few weeks
was an excellent idea. Gloucester Old Spots cope well with wet and mud
if they have dry well-strawed out arks to sleep in, which they had.
But it was becoming impossible to keep their feed troughs, or the tops
of my wellies, out of the mud. The pigs are now happily running around
in a large open fronted barn with dry sleeping quarters and lots of
things to keep them occupied. Once the weather dries up they will be
going back into their outdoor paddocks. The farm cat is a bit
nonplussed now that her favourite mousing barn is full of pigs.
Erik the Red, our Devon Ruby bull, is now officially too broad to fit into the cattle crush.
He weighs more than the car so keeping him still is essential whenever
he needs a check-up, which is where the crush comes in. Crush isn't an
accurate description; think along the lines of a cat carrier but on a
bull-sized scale. Luckily for us he is a very quiet even-tempered lad
but we will still have to think creatively about a way to get him to
stand still for his annual vet examination.
A lot of comings and goings in the last few weeks. We have another new
litter of piglets, courtesy of Peaches, who farrowed bang on time. So
of course her babies are known as The Little Peaches. Thirty-three
weaners have recently been sold to another farm and three little
gilts decamped to South Devon last weekend.
4
February 2010 - Letting your pig go walkabout
We've been having a big tidy-up inside and out now that the
weather has calmed down and the work load is back to normal and the
pig paddock water pipes aren't frozen. Eyebrows and Elvira Pigs
farrowed a couple of weeks ago. Elvira hung onto her litter for a few
days and then produced twelve piglets in an hour. This is a fast
delivery even for such an experienced sow. Elvira is five years old
and this is her eighth litter. She is a very canny pig; when she's
being moved to a new paddock she always knows where to go and doesn't
go careering off like some younger pigs I could mention. She also
knows exactly how every gate opens and if she feels like a walk then
she will stand in such a way that you can't open the gate without
letting her out. So then off we go together for a little wander about
until her curiosity is satisfied and she's ready to go back. And
because we know she knows the ropes we let her go wandering.
|
Rufus, his mum
Bramble and relatives
Ernest Pig's first
offspring, thanks
to Prudence
Walking Ella Pig
along
the track to her new quarters
Ernest Pig enjoys
the
soil spoil from the new cattle track
Generous Calf
ponders the hot weather
and the camera
Our lambs are pretty
as well as very friendly
Portia with her
eleven piglets. Can you spot
all of us?
Too busy eating to
yell
We deserve a kip
after being up all night
After hay baling
Getting stuck in
Teasle after her
haircut
Young Ernest Boar
Baby Oz, youngest
animal on the farm
The ever gentle
Benson Ram
Happy weaners
exploring their new home
Cinders and Embers
first lambs of 2011
Moll the Sheep
as a lamb in 2002
Feeding the sheep by
hand can be lots of fun
Amid the winter's
snow...
Merry Christmas from all at North Down Farm
Elsie's Pig Flap
may not look very pretty but it keeps the heat in
I don't care what I
weigh
Jack the Hat is a
very gentle gentleman
Magwitch resting
after his labours
Edie and the newborn
51st litter in their ark with their heat lamp
Blossom Calf
Our young piglets
are very keen to see what the neighbours are doing in the next door
paddock
Columbine Sheep is
no longer feeling the heat
Gloucester Old Spot
pork joins the ranks of Parma Ham and Champagne as a prestigious
protected food name
Happy grunting comes
after the snoring
Blossom, the Easter
Monday baby
Late snowdrops
outside
the farmhouse door
Erik the Red
- large, handsome and gentle natured
Pregnant and
eating for twelve! |
12 January 2010 - Minus 4 must be a thaw!
After a week of snow and
ice and temperatures down to minus 10 it feels positively balmy today
as it warmed up to minus 4. We've had fun chipping ice out of the
pigs' water troughs, often more than 15 centimetres thick. We broke a shovel
and a pick axe in our efforts. Happily the pigs don't mind the
weather, being interested in any novelty, and they have had a lot of
extra dry straw in their arks to keep them warm and cosy. And I have been able to wear
my fabulous furry hats. Not when feeding the pigs, I hasten to add. I
don't look quite so glamorous then.1 January 2010
- New Year, new focus
We are changing the focus of our farm this year. We will be breeding
Gloucester Old Spot Pigs, Devon Ruby Cattle
and Shetland Sheep to sell as breeding stock or as animals for people
to bring on and fatten and finish themselves. We will also be selling
meat to wholesale
markets but we will no longer be selling meat direct from the farm or
at farmers markets. |
Snow doesn't worry us
|
|
|
A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
to all of you from all of us at North Down Farm.
FOR SALE:
A range of DEVON RUBY STORE CATTLE.
GLOUCESTER OLD SPOT PIGS - breeding stock, weaners ready to finish, and all ages from 3
months to 10 months, many finished and ready to go for pork, bacon
or
ham.
Please phone 01363 85115 for details.
15 December 2009
Elsie Pig farrowed ten piglets at 4am this morning, just a few days after her
sister Persephone farrowed eleven piglets. Elsie is now the happiest pig
after a rather grumpy labour involving much bashing about of rubber
buckets and nesting with them. This is her third litter and our
thirty-fifth. Some more pedigree registered gilts have gone to new homes
in South Devon, Somerset and East Sussex where we hear they have all
settled in well.
11 November 2009
The cattle are all housed now for the winter and happy to be indoors and
out of the recent stormy weather. Some more pigs and cows and calves have
moved to their new homes.
27 October 2009
Lots of comings and goings at the moment. Some of the cows and calves
have gone to their new homes, including to our vet's farm, which is very
nice. Esther and Esmerelda farrowed 25 piglets between them last week.
They have been visiting each other's litters in a very sociable way.
5 October 2009
The last calf of the year was born on October 2 and she is named Pink and
is very pretty.
Even more piglets now that Estella has just had her first litter. She's a
quiet young sow, unlike some other boisterous members of the herd I can
think of! Such as Eyebrows who tried to eat my watch and made some good
pig-teeth shaped dents in it and Esther who pulled a hose pipe under her
fence and turned the tap on.
23 September 2009
This glorious autumn weather continues and all the livestock seem to
be enjoying it and basking in the sun.
The swallows left on the 18th and the Canada Geese arrived on the 17th
in a massive honking flock.
Penny Pig had her first litter two days ago at lunchtime. This was
much appreciated by us midwives. I have been known to nod off in the ark
along with a new-born litter of snoozing piglets after finishing midwiving
at 3 in the morning.....We've now had well over 200 piglets born to the
herd.
Yesterday a group of seven porkers lifted a metal gate off its hinges
and went walkabout, still in the field, until they found the smelliest
cowpat and then they all rolled in it. They are all happily back in their
paddock, with the gate hinge now pinned in such a way that even a pig
can't demolish it, but boy, do they pong and they are covered in dried
green poo. You know that saying - happy as a pig in ****. Well, what can I
say! I don't know what the attraction of a cowpat is because pigs don't
roll in their own poo.
6 September 2009
We moved lots of pig families about today. The first thing a sow does
when she goes into a new paddock is to find the muddiest part and then
roll about it.
1 September 2009
Another litter of piglets was born three days ago to Petronella Pig.
She produced eleven boisterous squeakers in two hours and is a
very happy mother. New born piglets are about 100th of the size of the
mothers.
Some of the older litters of piglets have discovered
blackberries and spend a lot of time standing on their little hind legs
with their heads in the hedge.
27 August 2009
Peaches Pig farrowed last night. This makes our 28th litter to date.
She'd spent the afternoon nesting in typical pig fashion including
collecting buckets and bits of string.
The nesting instinct is very strong in a sow about to give birth and
her choice of objects can be very original. See 29 July! I sat with
Peaches while she farrowed, as I usually do with all the sows, and it was
very peaceful and harmonious.
23 August 2009
We have once again been accredited by Freedom Food.
This is
the RSPCA's farm assurance and food labelling scheme and means that we
meet their high welfare standards for the care of all our farm animals.
11 August 2009
I have renamed one of the lambs Menace the Ramlamb because
he thinks nothing of
leaping into my barrow at every opportunity. While this skill is much to
be admired in one way, it can be rather inconvenient. The ram lambs have
now been moved in with the senior rams where they can't get up to such
mischief. This is a great success because they follow the adult rams about
adoringly and the adult rams accept such adoration graciously as their
due.
7 August 2009
We are now selling Scotch Eggs that we hand-make using our Gloucester Old
Spot sausage meat. And though I say it myself they are yummy!
29 July 2009
Portia Pig farrowed her first litter this morning a week earlier than
expected. Should have known something was up yesterday when she dragged
100 feet of yellow hosepipe under a gate and into her house and coiled it
into a nest.
Some neat recycling was achieved last week by donating hairs from our
cows' tails that had got stuck on fences to a fisherman who sells his
hand-tied flies at South Molton market.
20 July 2009
This is a good time of year for topping the fields, to encourage good
grass growth and stop the spread of injurious weeds like thistles and
nettles. I have been doing some by hand using a long handled scythe. This
is great fun and excellent exercise, though using the tractor is much
quicker! The orchard is always done by hand because of the trees and it
has really benefited from a combination of my thwacking and the ewes
munching. I usually leave some thistles in the hedgerows to encourage
butterflies and bees.
Ella Pig farrowed just over a week ago. Her piglets are much warier
than Prudence's recent litter but I am expecting them to jump on my
wellies any day now.
6 July 2009
From Thursday 9 July we
will have a stall at South Molton market on Thursdays for six weeks, as
well as every Saturday. We're looking forward to that and we'll be selling
sliced ham as a new product.
The first week in July has been very productive with the arrival of two
new calves and thirteen new piglets, thanks to mothers: Generous Cow,
Cupid Cow and Prudence Pig. I suppose I ought to thank the sires too: Erik
the Red and Pedro Pig. The new calves are named Gossip, a traditional
Devon Ruby name, and Arthur because his ear tag is 42!
28 June 2009
We're been sheep shearing this week, resulting in very cool and
relaxed sheep and wonderfully soft hands for the shearers. It's all that
lanolin in the fleece!
We've got a lovely new pork terrine for sale. We hand make it using our
Gloucester Old Spot pork, liver, cream, brandy and spices. You can buy it
at our Saturday market stalls on 4 July at Crediton and South Molton.
19 June 2009
Another busy week. Petra calved a little bull calf at 2am this morning
and is a very calm and attentive mother. We're very nearly finished
calving with only three more to come. Elvira Pig farrowed her 7th litter and
our 24th on Tuesday. Elvira is a pig with lots of character and she always
gets very grumpy towards the end of her pregnancies, turning her water
trough over every two minutes and barging her way into the farmyard for a
walk and change of scene. But as soon as she's farrowed she
settles
right down to peaceful motherhood. At least she will until her
brood are about four weeks old and then she will start wanting to go for a
walk again.....
13 June 2009
We
found out today that we won a prize for our sausages at the Devon County
Show in the Speciality Pork Sausage class. We are completely thrilled to
bits! The competition was judged by the ‘Black Farmer’ Wilfred
Emmanuel-Jones and well respected Devon butcher Gerald David. Entries came
from all over the country, not just Devon, and the competition organiser
and Show Steward Deborah Custance-Baker said: 'I am really looking forward
to welcoming both the judges to the County Show and in particular to the
Sausage Competition. They will both have a tough job selecting the
ultimate sausage, as the quality of sausages has risen in the last few
years. Real sausages are so tasty these days, we regularly get comments
such as “they taste like sausages used to taste” – they are pork in a
skin. The animals are traditionally reared and the meat is allowed to
mature, giving the sausages a fuller flavour. These are a real meal
instead of just a filler!' We entered three varieties of our sausage: our
famous Pork & Marmalade (with my home-made Seville Orange marmalade),
Honey & Ginger, and Leek & Spring Onion. We also want to say a big
thank-you to John and Richard Coles, our butchers, who make our sausages from our
ingredients and to our specification.
11 June 2009
Weather wise June has
been something of a roller coaster. In the space of a week I have gone
from filling up pig wallows (mud makes excellent sun-screen) and hosing
down pigs to keep them cool in temperatures of 80 degrees, to splashing
about in water proofs and sudden ponds created by forty-eight hours of
non-stop torrential, and I mean torrential, rain. Our pigs never seem to
mind the weather, being very adaptable and easy-going. The important thing
is for them to have shade and plenty of dry bedding. Of course they pull
their bedding out of their arks in really hot weather. And they do love a
hose pipe shower. Pedro Boar loves it so much that he follows the hose
pipe if you stop spraying him.
Continuing my watery theme the cattle barns have now all been mucked out
and I have been having fun pressure-washing and disinfecting them.
Nearly as much fun as having a bonfire!
29 May 2009
Our chorizo is available from today which is very exciting for us.
This air-dried sausage is made from our Gloucester Old Spot pork blended
with dried red peppers from Andalusia and some chilli.
6 May 2009
Spring turnout for the cows and calves today. This is always a joyous
event with much kicking up of heels and flying of tails. Getting the
timing right for turnout is very important. If the cows go out before the
new grass really gets going then they eat it right down and it can never
catch up over the summer months.
Another litter of piglets arrived at three in the morning yesterday.
That's our fifth litter in as many weeks. I have tried to tell the girls
that farrowing in the daytime is more civilised but litters come when they
want to. And these piglets were just thrilled to be born and were immediately
scampering about all over the place. Eyebrows Pig (you have
to see her facial markings, a sort of permanent look of surprise) is a
young first-time mum coping very happily with her new spotty brood.
1 May 2009
Our latest batch of
salami will be on sale from tomorrow. This is a delicious blend of pork,
red wine, garlic and chilli which has been air-dried for four weeks.
Persephone and Elsie Pigs have both farrowed in the last week so there are
lots of spring piglets squeaking about. These two mothers are sisters and
both have been taking an aunty-ish interest in the other's new litter -
sticking their heads into the other's ark to say hello, and holding a
conversation of grunts back and forth from ark to ark.
May Day traditionally heralds the coming of summer with warmer weather and
the blossoming of flowers and fruit trees. Our orchard cider apple trees
are gloriously in bloom, although the different varieties don't all
flower together.
21 April 2009
More than half way through calving now and the cows have organized
their crèche system. This includes Erik the Red, senior bull and father of
most of the calves. He takes his turn sitting with the new calves while
their mothers are eating and has even been known to give them a quick
wash. Mind you some of the cows have given us a quick wash too (a quick
swipe of a sand-papery tongue over a sleeve or whatever happens to be in
reach). This means they accept us as part of the herd which is an
excellent thing and the cattle are always very relaxed when we are in
among them. Brimstone, our young bull, has just fathered his first ever
calves, so it's cigars all round.
We've just had the fields limed which maintains the PH level and ensures
good grass growth in a natural way. It's also very sustainable because the
limestone has been recycled after being used in the processing of sugar.
So believe it or not our limestone came from British Sugar plc!
5 April 2009
Heaps going on here at the moment as we all take advantage of the sunny
dry weather. Outdoors we've been spreading the farm yard muck on the
fields, all entirely natural and only from the livestock themselves. We've
been reinforcing some pig fencing which is an on-going task with a herd of
digging inquisitive pigs. We've farrowed 23 piglets and calved two more
calves. We sold out of salami as soon as it was ready and we're curing
several more batches. Jim has made some new pig houses with a lot of help
from Esther Pig who wandered off with some of the tools. Typical pig
behaviour in my opinion.
29 March 2009
We're now a quarter of the way through calving. One of the new bull
calves is particularly bouncy even for a calf so he has been named Tigger.
When not butting our wellies or chewing our trousers he likes to shove his
head under our jackets. He's shown no signs of shyness from the minute he
was born and while all of our cows are friendly and relaxed we've never
had one so effusively delighted to see us as he is.
The first swallows arrived two weeks earlier than usual on March 25 and
were zooming around the sheep.
19 March 2009
'Spring has sprung, the grass has riz' as Ogden Nash would say. It's
been a gloriously sunny spring week here in every sense. Two more calves
arrived in quick succession. The farm hens are laying prolifically with a
lot of loud and proud squawking afterwards to make sure we know they've
just laid an egg. Esther and Esmerelda Pigs are due to farrow this weekend
and are looking large and contented. The hedgerows are bursting into life
with primroses, celandine and wild daffodils.
And there has been a lot of pinging and dancing on hind legs by the
sheep who are showing their pleasure at the change in the season.
9 March 2009
A weekend of twos has just whizzed by. We had stalls at two farmers markets and the first two calves of the year were born;
one named Plum and one named Brian. And if you are thinking Brian is a strange
name for a calf it's all to do with his being named in honour of an Exmoor farmer
we know. The farmer's wife is called Edna and Brian the Calf's mum is
named after her. We are delighted to be selling meat to The Lazy Toad at Brampford Speke
and to Lewis' Exmoor Tea Rooms in Dulverton.
1 March 2009
From this month we will have a stall every Saturday at South Molton's
Pannier Market (8.30am-1pm), selling pork charcuterie, hams, bacon and
salami, all produced from our own pigs.
There is a new litter of piglets thanks to Peaches Pig, another first time
mum. Old Spots are really great mothers and Peaches' offspring have been
sleeping under her lovely lop ears. It must be very warm under there!
We usually put pairs of sows to the boar at a time which is why we get
new litters born so close together. This has lots of advantages, including
the right amount of company for our two boars, George and Pedro. And as we
get up in the night a lot to check on mothers-to-be when a litter is due
it makes good sense to be doing it for two sows rather than one.
11 February 2009
Petronella Pig is Top Mum and farrowed her first litter last night.
This is also the first litter of this year. Petronella is a very tidy pig
and she made herself a beautiful nest in which to give birth. She's been
very attentive to her new piglets, not to say indulgent, grunting happily
as they scramble over her snout and under her ears and wobble about on her
back.
7 February 2009
Our first ever batch of North Down Farm salami was ready today and
sold out at Crediton Farmers Market. We've already got orders for the next
batch which is curing as I type and will be ready at the beginning of
March.
The recent snow has been a source of great entertainment to the pigs,
giving them something new to dig about in. They made me laugh by
collecting rings of snow around their noses and being completely unfazed
by the sudden change in the weather. It was extra straw all round for
everyone.
4 February 2009
FOR SALE: we are selling our Ashford Spinning Wheel for £150. In very
good condition.
Please telephone us on 01363 85115.
1 February 2009
A good week for the birds here. I rescued a house sparrow who had found
his way down a chimney and was sitting inside the woodburner, which wasn't
lit I hasten to add. I wasn't fast enough to catch him when I opened the
woodburner door and he flew up the stairs and spent the night roosting on
the landing light. He rejoined his sparrow gang the next morning by flying
out of the landing window none the worse for his night as a farmhouse
sparrow. I also did the annual RSPB garden bird watch and got myself a
good tally.
We have two kinds of pig arks on the farm. The majority are built in situ
by Jim and made of corrugated prebend and tannelised timber. They are
immensely heavy and can only be moved by roping them to the tractor. Then
there are the two prefab plastic arks we have that can be moved by two
humans in case of an emergency. Well, it turns out that they can be moved
by industrious pigs as well. The three sows currently sleeping in one of
them keep pushing it about as if it is a football. The previous
occupants were a litter of six month old porkers and they kept pulling out
the pegs that anchor it. We kept putting them back. And every time they
pulled them out they piled them up in a heap in the same place. Pretty
amusing if you're a pig, unless they thought that us dim humans wouldn't
be able to find the pegs if they piled them up somewhere else.
18 January 2009
We have just sold Bruno, a very handsome young Shetland ram, to a farm in
Dorset, where I think he will enjoy a lot of attention both from his girls
and his new owners. He has an excellent fleece and a fine set of double
curled horns. We weaned Elvira's piglets this afternoon and now she is
very grouchy indeed and is growling away to herself. She usually calms
down after a day or two and returns to her sunny natured self. She only
gets annoyed about the process because she is such an attentive mother.
I have been making Seville marmalade all week and so the house has been
smelling fruity and Mediterranean for days. That should keep us going for
a year's worth of breakfasts and for putting into our Pork & Marmalade
Sausages.
7 January 2009
The cold spell continues, and when I say cold I mean absolutely
freezing with temperatures down to -5 and not coming back up past 0. The
river has frozen right across and the garden pond has metamorphosed into a
fabulous ice sculpture. The pros of all of this are that it looks
gorgeous, it's rather nice to be working outside in it if you're wrapped
up properly, and then you can come into a roaring log fire. The cons are
that outdoor jobs take much longer, everyone needs a lot more straw and
the ten littlest pigs refused to come out of their ark (breakfast in bed,
please, Mrs Human) until they'd got used to the chill.
We always like to feed the birds whatever the weather and we usually
get blackbirds and fieldfares in the orchard over the winter eating the
windfalls. But this year there are hundreds of them carpeting the grass
and taking off in great clouds of black and grey when disturbed.
It's a glorious sight.
1 January 2009
Happy New Year to one
and all! It's been a wintry start to the year. It was so cold on New
Year's Eve that my wheelbarrow froze to the farmyard. We have put little
insulating jackets on all the outdoor yard water taps. Luckily for us we
have just had some of the water pipes re-plumbed inside the barns and so
now they don't freeze up. We had a very peaceful Christmas and are now in
the process of making Salami, a new charcuterie adventure.
24 December 2008
The Christmas mail order meat boxes have all arrived safely and all
the local deliveries are done. Time to put another log on the fire and
enjoy a bit of peace and quiet after a hectic few weeks. We wish you all a
very Merry Christmas from all at North Down.
15 December 2008
Christmas is coming and the sheep are getting fat...well, fluffy!
We've had a strange mixture of hard, glittering frosts and torrential rain
recently. We straw out the cattle and pigs every day when the weather is
like this. The youngest piglets are becoming very bold and swarm around my
feet at every opportunity, chewing whichever bit of me is in reach.
Mucking out takes on a surreal quality when a piglet is hanging off your
knee.
We've been doing extra Christmas farmers markets this month, including
Crediton Christmas Market this coming Saturday on 21 December, where we'll
be selling seasonal gammons and hams, chipolatas and bacon.
29 November
2008
We've just walked the cows, calves and our bull, Erik the Red, up the
lane and into the barn for the winter. They are happy to be indoors because the fields are
getting wet and muddy with the seasonal weather. It's all a big adventure
for some of the calves who were born outside and have never even seen a
barn. They stick close to their mums and peer at their new home and bounce
about in the straw.
25 November 2008
We'll have a stall at Hittisleigh Christmas Market this Saturday
afternoon, November 29. We're also taking orders for Christmas including
hams and joints and chipolatas and sausage meat for stuffing your
turkey.....
The first frosts of the year have arrived together with a flock of
fieldfares. They make a colourful commotion in the orchard eating the
windfalls. We've also got a huge roost of jackdaws in a stand of oak
trees. They squabble noisily and robustly all day and then perform
magnificent synchronised acrobatics at sunset.
3 November 2008
The kitchen piglets are now back outdoors with their mum. The Farm
Cat took their temporary presence in the house in her stride with great
nonchalance. Jim became known as The Hogfather for being such a good nursemaid.
Then
Elvira Pig had nine piglets in the middle of last night. This is her sixth
litter and altogether she has had 45 piglets. So I say she is definitely
the matriarch of the North Down herd.
30 October 2008
Well, we have piglets in the kitchen. Two little scraps who were born
yesterday and needed some extra
bottle feeding. They are in a box in front of the Aga and the kitchen is
full of squeaks and straw and the occasional ouch. Piglets have razor
sharp teeth and can't always tell the difference between the bottle and
the fingers holding it.
They drink about 1oz every hour or two and so are keeping us busy!
18 October 2008
FOR SALE: we are selling
our 2004 SIROMER TRACTOR 304S, 30 hp, complete with front loader, bucket
and four feet link box. This has now been sold.
12 October 2008
The Crediton Gazette newspaper has just done a feature on Crediton Farmers
Market which is held on the first Saturday of every month in the town
square. They took some really good photos of this vibrant market,
including one of us on our stall.
The market has just won another award
for Best Farmers’ Market of the Year in the Devon Life Food & Drink
Awards. This market prides itself on having produce that is as locally
based as possible and it also promotes itself as a community hub bringing
together different aspects of Crediton and the surrounding area.
See
www.creditonfarmersmarket.com
10 October 2008
This is a month for
outdoor jobs on the farm: checking the guttering, disinfecting the barns,
pulling up the carpet in my study and painting the floorboards. Okay, so
that's not an outside job but it is something I really want to do,
livestock permitting. They always come first. The rams will go in with the
ewes in a few weeks so another important October job is to work out the
family groups for tupping and check everyone's feet and teeth.
28 September 2008
Both Prudence and Ella farrowed their second litters in the last three
days, producing ten and five piglets each. They are relaxed mothers and
this helps the new babies learn about the world more quickly. Every litter
behaves differently and
they do tend to operate as a gang to begin with. Some litters are off en
masse exploring their surroundings within minutes of being born, some are
quicker to work out how to get their milk and some litters are very vocal
and some are not. All are always completely adorable though and it
is impossible not to smile when watching piglets.
21 September 2008
All the August piglets are now out and about and exploring their new
paddocks, twirling their tails with excitement. Ella and Prudence are due
to farrow soon and so we've been moving all the pigs around again. The
herd stands at 54 at the moment so it takes patience, planning and a good
sense of humour. Oh and it's very noisy.
We solved a mystery for one of our neighbours who walks her dog past the
farm at 6am every day. She was puzzled by strange rumblings coming from
the other side of the hedge. It turned out to be George, the senior boar,
snoring rather loudly.
The weather has been glorious lately, with pearly misty mornings, perfect
autumn days, masses of hedgerow berries and hips, skeins of geese
passing overhead, fat red sunsets and a harvest moon. Good garden bonfire weather too, so I had one.
15 September 2008
We
will be one of the stallholders showcasing local produce at the Rangemoors’ Winter Warming Party and Open Day at the
Airfield, Torrington Road, Winkleigh on Saturday September 20th. Judi
Spiers, from BBC Radio Devon, will open the festivities at 10am and then
Chris Archambault,
the Head Chef of the Hotel Barcelona in Exeter, will
give a cooking demonstration using our Devon Ruby Beef. There will be live music and other
entertainment. We hope to see you there!
2 September 2008
We will be at Crediton Farmers Market on the
first Saturday of every month (10am-1pm) from next week, selling our
Gloucester Old Spot pork, bacon, gammon and sausages.
Joe the Ram has just left us for his new home in Somerset where he will be
squiring Shetland ewes and living in an orchard with ducks and geese.
Which sounds lovely and he's got very kind new owners in Tracey and David.
Just spent a happy five minutes watching three very small piglets
disappear into an empty feed bucket and push it about. I think I will
leave it in their pen as a toy.
17 August 2008
Our ten-month old pedigree Patrick Gloucester Old Spot boar was sold today and
we're pleased to say that he's gone off to a good home near Dartmoor. He's
a very sociable and chatty pig and he'll be very happy with his new harem.
We did a charity Cider'n'Sausage Tasting evening last Friday in
Hittisleigh. The cider was provided by a local producer Barny Butterfield
from Sandford Orchards and we provided the sausages and everyone had to
guess what was in them. (Honey with root ginger, spring onion, apricot,
and sun-dried tomato with basil in case you're wondering). It was lots of
fun and these flavours were so popular that we will be adding them to our
regular repertoire.
The recent unseasonable weather brought
down most of our rather large peach tree. I had been mulling over how to
prune it as it was cascading into the courtyard garden in a rather opulent way.
But I didn't get round to it and now it is out of my hands which will
teach me.
Two pairs of Shetland breeding ewes have also just left us for new homes
in a neighbouring village and further afield in Somerset.
12 August 2008
The glorious 12th indeed for us! Persephone Pig had her first litter of piglets early this morning with
no fuss. Then Elsie Pig had her first litter of piglets in the middle of
the afternoon. Mothers and children are all well tucked up in a lot of straw away
from these torrential summer showers.
Then Generous Cow had her calf at the same time as Elsie was farrowing. So
I mid-wived the pig while Jim mid-wived (mid-husbanded?) the cow. We've
named the new bull calf Mustard and he is the last of this year's calves.
So all is very well on the farm today.
The sheep in the orchard are scoffing up all the windfall apples which
they regard as a great treat. They eat them whole, very delicately, and
then dribble a lot. The pigs love apples too and eat them in much the same
way as sheep only with more vigour, or fewer manners depending on how you
look at it. The cattle also get very excited about their apple treats which
come in the form of pulp; the by-product of our autumn apple pressing for
juice and cider.
11 August 2008
We had a visiting
Sparrowhawk in the cider barn who couldn't seem to find his way out. We
rang a falconer for advice, duly given but with the cavil that when one
got lost in the Barnstaple pannier market recently it took two weeks for
it to come down from the apex and find the door. Ours took two days and we
enticed him out using bright lights in the dark. The first night we tried
this he ignored us completely, asleep on a beam with his head under his
wing and wouldn't wake up even for my banging about.
He was very handsome indeed and I am glad that he is safely back in
the wild.
4 August 2008
We have a pedigree Gloucester Old Spot boar for sale at £150 who was born
on the farm in October
2007. He's very friendly and has nice markings and
is ready to work. He's a Patrick out of a Star Antoinette sow.
We also have some old oak cider barrels for sale at £50 each.
1 August 2008
Marigold Calf made her entrance on the 30 July early in the morning, all
wobbly legs and fluffy tail. Only one more cow to calve now and several
litters of piglets due any day.
Just to prove that it is a small and
circular world today we delivered ten Shetland ewes to their new home which is just down
the road from where they were born on our old farm on Exmoor. So we know
they will thrive there. They are forming a new Shetland flock and will
help to renovate some fields that have been long neglected. Shetlands are
great foragers and ideally suited to this delicious task. Two little wethers have also just gone to a new home as pet lawn mowers for a hilly
paddock. Wethers can be exceptionally friendly and good company if you are
looking for pet sheep and don't want to do any breeding. These little
chaps were very pretty and their new owner fell in love with them when he
came to help us move our hen house.
25 July 2008
We have been making hay this week while the sun shines! First it's cut
which makes furrows, then
turned several times over the next four days, and finally baled. Farmers are
always anxiously watching the sky when harvesting or hay-making. Or in our
case glued to the five day weather forecast and satellite pictures on the BBC
website. Mind you we are keen weather watchers anyway. I have been keeping
a weather diary for years noting not just the weather of the day but which
birds are about, or which plants are flowering.
We've just got our new second-hand tractor which is proving to be a much better beast
for hay making than our old one.
9 July 2008
A little group of pedigree black and brown ewes have just left us to
join their new flock in Somerset and one of our young rams, Lysander, will
be going to join them at the end of this month. Their nice new owners say
that they have settled into their orchard and are munching happily away.
I thought I'd mention some of the things we are doing
on the farm to recycle, reduce and reuse because we put a lot of effort
into it and it is worth while. We now get all our pig feed and bedding straw from
a neighbouring farmer who grows it all on his farm. He delivers feed to us
in bulk, using reusable one tonne bags, and this has dramatically reduced
our plastic feed bag usage to nothing! It also means that our
pig feed miles are zero too. We reuse all the livestock mineral lick
buckets as water or
carrying buckets. We are about to implement a big rain water collection
project so that we can divert clean rain water away from the farm yard and muck
heap and reuse it. This will also help prevent run-off into the roads and
ditches and from there into the rivers which all helps the local wildlife.
I have even found a wonderful woman who recycles old woollies into
stylish new garments. So my old unworn grey crew neck has been turned into a
fabulous silk trimmed cardi. Considering how much time I spend dressed
in dirty old farmyard clothes you can understand the lure of a revamped
cashmere cardi. Her website says: 'where the lost souls of old jumpers are
saved to be reborn into stylish new clothing', a sentiment which I can
only agree with. See
www.magpieheaven.net
I even recycle our breakfast coffee grounds onto my roses!
3 July 2008
We have added two more breeding sows to our expanding herd. Elsie and
Petronella were born here on the farm last September. We are able to keep
a closed herd and not have to buy in any pigs because we have two
unrelated boars. This allows us to have two pig family dynasties and
maintain our biosecurity. The next litters will be born in August to Elsie
and Persephone, both first time mothers-to-be. They are very different
characters. Elsie is the noisiest pig we have ever had and Persephone
insists on a pat every time we go past her paddock. I was much entertained
last week when I gently blew on Ella Pig's nose from a distance and she
blew back much harder! The pigs also have another nose joke involving the
water troughs. When not slurping up a drink they like to stick their noses
in as far as possible and blow bubbles.
23 June 2008
Busy busy here with shearing the sheep and vaccinating to prevent blue
tongue. The sheep all look very elegant and small without their four inch
thick fleeces. They are always a much darker colour underneath, so
the gingery brown girls now look the colour of cocoa powder and the pale
grey ones are now a dark dove grey. I will hand shear a small group
in the next week, to keep in practice and because I really enjoy it. The flock is too
large for me to do all of them that way. The rams rather enjoy being hand
shorn too and Pepperpot, the senior ram, has been known to politely lift
his leg when I get to the shoulder socket.
5 June 2008
The twelfth calf of the year was born yesterday afternoon.
He's called Walnut and was on his feet and sucking lustily within an
hour of his arrival. He's spent most of today dozing in the sunshine among
the buttercups.
We've been fencing off some more pig paddocks to cater for the growing
mob, I mean herd, and also for the fact that our two old ladies, Pris and Evadne, who
should know better,
decided to tunnel under a fence and eat a hole in the hedge next to
the road. They now reside in a paddock where they can't repeat such
mischief.
We are now producing smoked bacon, ham and gammon as well as the
traditional dry-cured varieties. We have been getting a lot of compliments
from customers about the fact that it doesn't shrink in the pan!
19 May 2008
We have been weaning piglets and moving pig families into new
paddocks. Always a job that requires a lot of planning as little piglets
run in every possible direction except the one you want them to, given
half a chance. Everything is so exciting to them that they want to
experience it all at once. Pigs have no concept of patience and love
novelty. George Pig is now in with Ella and Prudence and Pedro Pig has
Esmerelda and Persephone for company so the next litters are due in
August. Pris and Evadne are having a rest and Esther and Elvira are
looking after their recent broods. Jim is growing vegetables in some of
the old pig paddocks, nicely dug about by the pigs and then rotovated by
Jim. If I could only get the pigs to dig in straight rows I'd make a
fortune!
Busy doing soil nutrient planning at the moment - the science of making
the grass grow as well as possible by using our naturally produced
farmyard muck in the right amounts at the right time of year. I started by
having a soil analysis done on each field. Then I input these results into
formulas and tables to calculate what each field needs. Then I work out
what nutrients are in the muck heap and thus I know how much to spread and
where next spring. Nature is a wonderful thing. The cows provide the
content of the muck heap from being over wintered in the barns. This rots
down and gets spread on the fields which helps the grass grow to feed the
cows all summer and for cutting hay for winter. Voila!
26 April 2008
Spring is here at last. The orchard is full of apple blossom, the
first swallows arrived three days ago, the grass is finally growing and we
have turned the cattle out and Elvira Pig had twelve incredibly spotty
piglets this morning.
18 April 2008
We have just had our annual RSPCA Freedom Food inspection which we all
passed, bipeds and quadrupeds, with flying colours. The inspector was
particularly taken with how relaxed our animals are and praised their good
condition.
Two more calves were born last weekend, Maple and Marmalade who is
already licking my hand.
3 April 2008
A busy twelve hour period last night with the arrival of Esther Pig's nine
piglets and Blossom Cow's bull calf Chestnut 2. He is the third calf of the year;
only eleven more to go. Us midwives are very happy.
26 March 2008
Ginger the Calf was born early this morning; the second of this year's
calves. This means that Pablo, the Singlet Piglet, is no longer the
youngest animal on the farm, although he is still the smallest, at least
for now. Ginger's mum Rowan is a very relaxed and experienced mother so he
is getting an excellent start in life.
24 March 2008
We have just waved good-bye to a group of 25 of our Shetland breeding
ewes who have gone to their new home in Dorset to form a new flock. We are
always pleased that they go to a good home. Quite often the new owners
keep in touch and let me know how the girls are doing which I always
appreciate. Recent bulletins have been about how friendly the ewes become
once they settle into their new farm, and how high one of them in
particular can jump! Our neighbours
have been telling us how entertained they are by a group of our sheep who
have taken to bouncing about on an earth bank which can be seen from the road.
Shetlands are just full of pizzazz and character.
15 March 2008
We are introducing a range of delicious ready-meals using our own beef,
pork and lamb. These dishes are prepared by hand by us in small batches
using the best ingredients to complement our meat. Our first batch of
Steak & Ale Pies sold extremely well at this Saturday's market. We used an
old recipe with Jim making the beef filling and me making the short crust
pastry. Watch out for the forth-coming Beef Curry, Shepherd's Pie, Pork &
Apple Casserole and many more.
The three week old piglets are growing very quickly and becoming quite
cheeky. They get iron and minerals from digging in the soil but this
litter has decided that it is more fun to chew the mud off my wellies and
get their iron rations that way.
13
March 2008
I was
just getting used to the pleasure of some frosty sunrises when the weather
changed direction and the storms arrived. There hasn't been much damage to
the orchard and those branches that fell off will become a good habitat
for insects and fungi. We also leave some decaying wood on the live trees
to try and encourage the Noble Chafer Beetle. This rare beetle is very
much associated with traditional orchards like ours as they particularly
like fruit trees aged between fifty and eighty. We manage the orchard in
such a way that we keep the trees healthy while still leaving places for
the wildlife. So that heap of rotting logs is meant to be there!
21 February 2008
Prudence Pig had a litter of seven piglets this afternoon; a very
civilised time to be born. This is her first litter and she is a very
attentive mother and doesn't mind them wobbling over her nose as they
explore. One or two of them are already quite adventurous and Prudence
calls them back if they go too far. The piglets' ears will take about a
week to flop forward into the traditional lop ear position and it takes
about five days for their tails to curl up.
Pickle the Calf has discovered he has vocal chords, but he is too little
to moo properly yet, so he makes a sort of basso profundo bark instead.
He's a very bouncy baby.
6 February 2008
There is a new baby at North Down. Duchess Cow had a little bull calf at
9pm last night - the first of the 2008 calves. He's very gangly and
pretty and we've named him Pickle. All his aunties took a great interest in the proceedings. But his
dad, Erik the Red, just sat in the corner of the barn in a lordly way,
unruffled by his newest offspring bumping into him. Much cooing from the
bipeds on the farm, I can tell you.
I've more or less finished making this year's marmalade to go in out Pork
& Marmalade Sausages, unless I can get some more Seville oranges from
somewhere. They have been in short supply. Making marmalade is great fun.
The whole house becomes steamy and fragrant while a batch is on the go.
31
January 2008
The snowdrops and primroses are flowering. The local peregrine falcon
has been perched on a tall tree in the orchard. The sunrises have been
spectacular. And so has the rain! This has been a busy but quiet month,
mostly spent taking hay and feed to the livestock, with lots of mucking
out, and tidying and making plans for when the days are longer and drier.
19 January 2008
We now have a stall at Tedburn St Mary's
produce market on the 3rd Saturday of every month. It's a bustling market
with lots of different producers and you can get a breakfast buttie and
tea, which is always very welcome.
The calves are now weaned. There was yelling for a day or two while they
all got used to the idea and then they settled down again. We are due to
start calving in a couple of weeks with Duchess Cow about to be the first
mum of the year. She's a grand old lady of fourteen and she suits her name.
31 December 2007
We are doing practical outdoor jobs this week, like more concreting in
the farmyard. I used to say that a Girl Can't Have Too Much Velvet (well,
I still do), but now I say a Girl Can't Have Too Much Concrete. It just
makes farmyard life so much easier. Happy New Year to one and all!
22 December 2007
The Christmas mail order meat boxes have all arrived safely at
their various destinations and we finish the last local meat deliveries
tomorrow. So all that remains is wish everyone a Very Merry Christmas from
all bipeds and quadrupeds at North Down and maybe scoff a mince pie or
two.
18 December 2007
Two of our ten week old Gloucester Old Spot gilts went to their new
home in North Somerset this morning where they are going to be kept for
breeding. Their pedigree names
are Northdown Star Antoinette 26 and 27. In true pig fashion they undid
the shoelaces of their new owner, Tracey, before we loaded them for their
journey.
16 December 2007
At last I have found time to add the new Apple Juice page to the
website. We have been beavering away pressing and bottling. People are
being very complimentary about it and then ordering it by the case!
These short December days are always busy with outdoor jobs as we cram
everything in before the daylight goes; including taking hay and clean
bedding to the housed cattle, feeding the pigs and doing the daily rounds
of checking on the sheep etc. Mucking out the cattle barn is completely
different to putting new straw into the pig arks. We move the cows to one
side of the barn and muck that out with the tractor and the cows all stand
still and watch. Then we repeat on the other side. Taking clean straw to
the pigs involves bribery because as soon as they see you going into one
of their arks they want to come in with you and see what you are up to and
maybe help out. Piglets help out by chewing my trousers. The big pigs help
out by trying to spread straw for me before I've emptied it out of the
carrying sack. This can be very entertaining but it gets a bit crowded
with several bustling housekeeping pigs helping to make their duvets. I
have found that the answer is to give them a swede each, or a handful of
apples, to keep them occupied until I have finished. Then they can make as
many changes to their domestic arrangements as they like without tripping
me up or blocking the doorway.
27
November 2007
Christmas is coming and we've been doing some seasonal markets which
are always good fun. We are making free local deliveries of meat on 22-23
December for orders taken before then. Why not try a Whole Ham or a
roasted Gammon Joint glazed with honey and cloves as an alternative to
turkey. And if you do want a traditional turkey then why not try wrapping our
Christmas chipolatas in our dry-cured bacon as an accompaniment or
make stuffing with our sausage meat.
I've updated all the meat price lists and added some new serving
suggestions. I am often asked why I haven't any meat recipes on the
website - lack of space really. But I will be happy to send you some if
you email me.
The cows and calves are now housed in the barn for the winter. We did a
big re-design of the hay racks which gives the cattle more space. I know I
say this every year but working in the barn with the cattle is always a
very enjoyable experience. The cows are very peaceful and the mixture of
the smell of hay and cattle breath is wonderful.
14 November 2007
We sold six more Shetland breeding ewes today, all with very pretty
markings and colours. They have gone to the same farm that recently bought
one of our pedigree Shetland rams. Their new owner also has some Jacob
ewes and was wondering if the lambs from
a Shetland ram and a Jacob ewe would be Shacobs or Jetlands!
The apple juice sold very well at last week's market which was very
good. We will be pressing for a batch of cider in the next few days.
And I have finally found the hole in our leaking pond. Typically, it was
very near the bottom just to make doing the repair simple, haha. The fish
have been temporarily housed in an unused long cattle trough, not near any cattle
I hasten to add. Having said that, it is common for farmers to put
goldfish into cattle drinking troughs to keep them clean. I have never tried this
but apparently the cows don't eat them!
8 November 2007
Another little group of Shetland ewes has gone off to their new home today
where they will join some goats and pigs on a North Somerset small holding
and be very well looked after, from the sound of things.
Spent the afternoon designing labels for the apple juice bottles which
is harder than you might think. Just when is a design finished, that's
what I want to know.
6 November 2007
A busy week so far and it's only Tuesday.
Jim has been on a sausage making course and we've done our first autumn
pressing and bottling of apple juice for sale from the farm and at
markets. There are several stages to this starting with gathering and
washing the apples. Then we pulp them and press them and pour the
resulting juice into large containers to settle. Next we tap the juice off
into bottles which we then pasteurise with our whizzy new machine. Our old orchard is proving to be very productive this year. Its
bumper crop is being shared by us and a flock of fieldfares who have
arrived for the winter from Scandinavia. They are large, colourful birds,
both noisy and gregarious, and great fun to watch in the apple trees. The
orchard is also feeding some grey squirrels who have been bouncing across
my lawn clutching whole apples to their chests.
The farm cat has just decided to insert her purry self between me and the
keyboard so any speeling mistakes are hers. |
Merry Christmas from all quadrupeds and bipeds at North Down Farm
Exploring their new home, two of our recently sold young breeding gilts
now named Poppy and Saffron by their new owners
Happy to be in the barn
I'm very new
The farm cat has
a bit of a rest
100:1 ratio piglets!
The blackberrying piglets
Menace the Ramlamb
and friends
Our Scotch Eggs
The pros and cons
of thistles
The cobwebbed beauty of
a fine Shetland fleece
Petra looking after
her very new calf
We're thrilled to bits
that our sausages
won a prize at the
Devon County Show
Our pigs just love
to wallow
Spring turn out
Salami made with
red wine, garlic, chilli
and pork from our
Gloucester Old Spot pigs
Asleep in a heap
A froth of cider apple
blossom at North Down
Spring grass at
North Down
Esther Pig inspecting
the workmanship of her
new house
Spring has sprung
Plum the Calf hiding
behind the hay rack. He likes to sleep under it too
Petronella and
determined piglet
For Sale -
Ashford spinning wheel
NOW SOLD
Sudden snow doesn't faze
the farm rooks
An immovable ark
A very handsome chap
The fruits of my Seville
Marmalade labours
The littlest pigs decide
breakfast is better
than a lie-in
Not Bah Humbug, but
baa-aa Merry Christmas!
Who says my
Santa hat is naff?
I'm in for the winter
The Farm Cat inspects
the piglets
Tractor for sale
Now sold!
Here we are selling our
Gloucester Old Spot free range pedigree pork at Crediton Farmers Market
Benson Ram who is so
mellow and relaxed that he will follow me around for a walk
A fat red autumn
sunset at the farm
Month old piglets say
hello to Aunt Evadne in the neighbouring paddock |
