September 2008

In July, when we finally got the sheep sheared during a brief sunny spell, we thought we could then get started with the silage making.  It’s now September and we are still waiting for the next sunny spell to turn up and the grass is still waiting to be cut!  I’m not sure what the animals will be eating this winter if we don’t get some sun this month!

We retained one of our own Welsh Black bulls to use this year as David was concerned that our most senior bull, Idloes Viscount, was getting on a bit and to be quite honest, he is so laid back he does nothing in a hurry!  We thought his son could take over with one batch of cows and the other senior bull, Cathedine Domino, (whose photo decorates the wall of the shop) could run with the other half.  When the cows began calving however, it soon became obvious that there is life in old Viscount still as the calves appeared in quite a rush.  So, David has given him a reprieve and split the cows three ways instead of two.

We recently weaned all the pure Dorset lambs, which were on view to our customers at lambing time.  We will have to brave the rain this week and sort them out for registration as the pedigree flock returns have to be sent in shortly.  All the female lambs will be tattooed in the ear with their flock number, as will the males which we have selected as potential breeding rams.  The remainder will be sold through the shop when they are ready.

We also recently bought two pedigree Dorset rams.  Although we have a large number of good rams of our own breeding which we can use on the Lonk and Gritstone ewes, every few years we have to buy new bloodlines for the pedigree sheep as they will have the same fathers as most of our rams.

We must inform our customers that we are attempting to give them what many constantly ask us for……a cafe!  We have applied for planning permission to convert the large building, in which the sheep and cattle lived last winter, into a cafe and larger shop.  We always hoped to open a cafe eventually and the shop becomes so busy at times that we decided it would be sensible to attempt to move into a larger space.

Work is due to start on a new building at Wood Farm any day now and the cattle will be more comfortably housed in specially designed pens.  It will also be more practical to care for them at Wood Farm rather than at Albion Farm.  Customers shouldn’t worry as there will still be plenty of animals to see in the field next to the shop.