What a busy March! It seems to have been an incredibly busy month on the farm so far, and thankfully, the recent sunshine has meant the soil has dried out for some of the most critical jobs of the year.
Having been in the bottom meadow where the ground is really a little wet for them, the sheep are loving grazing under the trees in the orchard, (fertilising as they go), and although they don’t currently need any additional food, our two youngest granddaughters enjoyed feeding them a few sheep nuts whilst they were here over the weekend. The sheep you see looking at them is the ram, who has acquired the nickname Gordon whilst he’s been here. He bounces towards you in what could appear to be a bit of an aggressive way, but basically he’s just looking for more grub and protecting his ladies, so I’m sure he bears no resemblance to his famous namesake at all!
He will be going back to his home on Dartmoor as soon as time allows, and although he’s only young, we hope he’s done his ‘job’, but only time will tell. The gestation of a sheep is around five months, so all being well, there could be some very small lambs in a few months time!
Meanwhile, Sam has been drilling the spring crops. This year he has been sowing Spring Oats and a mixture of Triticale (a hybrid of wheat and rye) and vetch which will be used for biodigester fuel. We now use zero till methods when planting our crops, which preserves the ecosystems in the soil and reduces soil compaction. The fields are then rolled, and in some cases fertiliser is spread where needed. Even though we are still experiencing frosty nights and cold winds, the sun should have started to warm the ground, and although most of us won’t welcome the rain forecast for a couple of days time, it will be perfect to take the fertiliser down into the soil and make it available for the germinating seeds.
In between times, orchard pruning is still underway. We have taken on an outside team to carry out the annual prune on one of the orchards, but this year a bit of extra work is needed. Some of the trees are now getting too high to manage, and in places the top branches have started to shade the lower ones which could in turn affect the yield. Cutting the tops out is a two man job, with Robert on the Merlo and Sam safely in the ‘cage’ using a pole saw, which in effect is a mini chainsaw on the end of an extendable pole. Hopefully a bit of sunshine and blue skies distracts from the aching muscles, although it does mean cool safety glasses! 😎
