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Latest News
9th March 2010
Two lorry loads of oats have been sold to Attlees, so David loaded them up first thing this morning.
We have had a recent independant CMi farm inspection and have just recieved certification for assured combinable crops and beef. Tomorrow the Environment Agency inspect the farm to check fertiliser records, manure management plan and manure records, nitrogen vulnerable zone records, fuel storage and chemical store inspection.
7th March 2010
It has been week of voting in the National Farmers Union.
Peter Kendall and Meurig Raymond have been emphatically re-elected for further two-year terms as president and deputy president of the NFU and I think this makes a lot of sense with the General Election looming. Peter and Meurig know how things work up at Westminster and I am sure they are the best people to represent the farming community during a General Election.
After the National elections came the regional elections at which Laurence was again elected as Chairman of the Regional Crops Board. Tomorrow Laurence has another journey to London for the Assured Combinable Crop Scheme Board which meets about five times a year.
The Board comprises of many people representing the food chain including farmers, trade representatives such as merchants, millers from the National Association of British and Irish millers, Masters of beer making and seed representatives.
Back here on the farm David has been muck spreading over the weekend and Sam has been on cattle duties, whilst Luke has reached his 18th surprise birthday party without guessing what was afoot!
Edward has been working with Gillian Van Der Meer this weekend and they have sown the wheat and Barley in pallets for the Hampton Court Palace Show.
I helped out for a while and was captured in a few rare photos as I helped rake over the topsoil in readiness for planting.
The soil is raked until evenly distributed across the pallet, pror to seeding and covering in a fleece to create a wind break as the seeds germinates.
20th February 2010
At Hampton Court Flower Show this year, the Royal Horticultural Society has chosen a ‘home grown’ theme. Their display will feature a garden, orchard, and traditional hedging and will demonstrate how we can all use our gardens to grow our own fruit and veg, but it will also feature ‘home grown’ farm produce.
We have been asked to grow spring wheat, oats, barley and oil seed rape for this display, ready to be transported to Hampton Court Palace at the end of June.
Work began last week; however the snow, frost and a deluge of rain have hindered progress. Pallets are placed in rows in the field with a tractor width between them. As it was half term, Edward helped prepare the pallets with Gillian Van Der Meer who is designing the display for the RHS.
Gillian Van Der Meer and Edward Matthews prepare the pallets.
A wooden collar is placed on each pallet; a breathable liner is fixed to the inside and then filled with soil by RVDM Landscaping from Battle, East Sussex. Seed will be broadcast by hand into a total of 330 pallets.
In normal circumstances most of these crops would have been sown in fields last autumn and ready to harvest this summer. For this project we have a tight timescale, but as the sun warms the soil in the pallets the crops should germinate quickly compared to below ground where the soil will be slower to warm.
RVDM Landscaping fill the pallets with soil.
10th February 2010
Look out for the launch this week of the 100% British loaf by leading miller, Rank Hovis. Hovis are rolling out a new policy of using only UK - produced ‘red’ wheat in all its branded products.
We are one of 600 farms in the UK where this wheat is being grown in 2010. Red wheat used to be imported from Canada but trials have shown that the AC Barrie variety used is well-suited to British conditions; however the yield will be 50% less.
To compensate for the lower yield, the miller is paying a premium, to ensure that sufficient wheat is available for all the Hovis loaves, flours and mixes. This means the farmer will grow a specific variety as requested, yield will be down but a fair price will be paid.
The company was involved in the trial of a second variety of red wheat and will be extending this to four or five in 2011.
The loaves of bread are already in the major stores and can be recognized by a smart new 100% British wheat and Union Jack logo.
I have been informed that it took two days for crop circle makers to create the '100% British Hovis' text in the field of wheat you see above; this will be part of the 100% British Hovis launch this Friday.
9th February 2010
Today was tinged with sadness as it was the funeral of Vi Bullen, who farmed at Swanworth Farm, Mickleham. I first met Vi in 1985 when I worked at Box Hill. Vi’s husband Alf grazed sheep on Box Hill for the National Trust and whilst I worked there, I used to keep an eye on Alf’s sheep and can remember erecting what seemed like miles of Flexi – netting’ and getting numerous electric when checking the fence!
I took this photo at the Box Hill Country Fair in 1985, Alf took along a few sheep so that he could demonstrate shearing and Vi demonstrated her skills at spinning wool.
Five cows were due to calve about January time, however we have waited a little longer for ‘Browny’ to give birth as she is always weeks behind the others! On Friday Browny gave birth to a beautiful heifer calf, which looks tiny compared to those which were born on 30th December. On our way back from the funeral, Amanda asked whether I had a name ready for the heifer calf which we needed to tag this afternoon; my immediate response was ‘Vi’.
So this afternoon we brought the cows with their calves at foot, into the yard at Raikes Farm and tagged the bonny little calf.
I tagged the calf as Amanda held her steady.
The cattle must have two tags which provide a plethora of information. However it is possible to use one side of one tag to add a name and this is what we do for the suckler herd calves.
A Defra approved eartag must be placed in each ear (double tagging). Both the tags have the same unique number by which the animals will be identified throughout its lifetime. UK261348500038 will be the unique number of our new heifer calf. UK261=Surrey, 348= our herd, 5= a check digit and 00038 is the animal number.
After tagging the calf, this group of cattle were loaded into a trailer and moved to a fresh field south of Hackhurst. Flo the Belgium Blue cow is to the left of this picture with her 'Beltie' cross twins.
Tomorrow morning we’ll be moving steers and maiden heifers from the fields east of Hackhurst, to Raikes. The in-calf cows will remain in the fields to the east for the time being; they are due to calve in May-June.
30th January 2010
Today we were blessed with perfect weather for our winter harvesting of grain maize along the Tillingbourne Valley.
Instead of tyres, the combine harvester has rubber tracks at the front which have less impact on the ground. Rubber tracks reduce the pressure by 66% compared with a 900mm wide tyre and they create greater traction for hill work and on muddy ground. However even this cannot cope with cavenous holes beneath the ground as Laurence discovered last week.
The electricity board have been digging trenches along the field edge in order to bury cables, unfortunately one area hadn't been back-filled adequately and the ground had become a vast unseen swamp, into which the combine harvester fell! It's a shame I wasn't about, as that would have been great practice for my new camera!
As Laurence waits for David to bring an empty trailer back to the field, he climbs up onto the combine to shift the grain in the tank which is almost full to the brim.
He should manage to cut a few metres more before emptying the contents of the tank into the trailer, which will be transported back to the farm for stoeage until it is sold.
The red trailer carries about 14 tonne of maize and the blue trailer holds about a tonne more.
24th January 2010
The farm is generally fairly quiet on winter Sundays and we get the chance to watch the boys play rugby and then have the delight of washing their kit yet again. After lunch today, there was a fast disappearing act from three boys; Edward got stuck into History homework whilst his brothers AKA Ray Mears and Bear Grylls, prepared themselves for an epic trip into the wilds of Surrey!
As I loaded the dishwasher I was gazing out of the window, trying to decide between an afternoon of gardening or sewing labels onto kit, exciting eh? When I noticed a car moving very slowly down the lane and imagined a pedestrian in its way, however I was soon to discover it was something entirely different.
Picture the next scene in slow motion, as that’s how it seemed. Our neighbours Sheila and Steve, with a look of amazement on their faces moved towards their gate, but all the while their eyes were pinned on ....Phoebe, who was wandering up the track!
Phoebe, one of our sows had decided to go walk-about (another fan of Messrs Ghrylls and Mears I wonder?)
So with a cry ‘there’s a pig out!’ the family dropped everything and came running. We had to check back up the lane just in case Prudence and Percy were in hot pursuit, but luckily they’d decided to stay at home.
After a brief stint of exercise Laurence went back to his newspaper, ‘Ghrylls and Mears’ went off in search of rare bugs and bush-craft and Edward it transpired had missed all the fun as he missed the cry for help!
Phoebe was in no mood to return home quietly and I could ut this down to the condition she is in. More than 21 days have passed since the sows were served by Percy and with no sign of him serving again; they must be pregnant!
There’s no field work at present, but the livestock routine continues and we’re looking forward to a week without snow.
A new and very effective cattle handling system (cattle crush) arrived last November and word has got around to local farmers, who are asking to see it in action. So this week there may be an audience in a field at Raikes Farm as the crush is put to good use, weighing the cattle.
Running through the features of the handling system on arrival.
The cattle are weighed every couple of months to check that they are growing and at the same time we can check that no ear tags are missing. If any tags are missing within a particular group we take note of the identity number and place an order for replacement tags. Even if just one animal needs a replacement tag, the entire group of cattle in the field will need to be fetched up once again, into a corral and pass through the crush until the animal with the missing tag arrives in line!
Three loads of wheat will leave the farm Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and each load will travel with a wheat passport which is handed in at the destination. The passport provides information for food traceability and is just a tiny part of the farm assurance work that we undertake. This particular seed wheat variety was grown on contract for Openfield, but in the end they chose not to use that variety to sell on as seed, therefore it will be used as milling wheat.
7th January 2010
Hello! did you bring any food with you?
I will re-name Sandy Meadow for the coming weeks as it really should be called Snowy Meadow!
As ice breaking commenced at the trough,the Belted Galloways trundled up Snowy Meadow to say hello and to see whether food was on board the truck. Harvey thinks he may have found something and the 'girls' soon follow!
Out-wintering cattle are provided with fodder, as a foot of snow blankets the grassland. Five people are working flat out on livestock feed and water, plus bedding-up the inside cattle.
Defrosting pipes and breaking ice continued today, however it’s a never ending job for the staff in plunging temperatures. Inevitably, troughs which were ‘defrosted’ this morning had begun to freeze over again all too soon.
Another day and another trough;
Ian breaks the ice and Amanda scoops out the slush.
6th January 2010
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!
We had a fairly heavy fall of snow last night which means most work today is livestock related; breaking ice in water troughs, defrosting pipes, feeding and littering up. The power was cut at 6.45am and that’s when the Aga really comes into its own. The kettle has been on the go fairly constantly as we fill flasks for our neighbours.
Our tractors have been clearing snow and removing a large fallen tree which was blocking the A25, also snow clearing to reach cattle at Coast Hill Farm, West Lane, Raikes Farm and Churchfield Farm.
5th January 2010
December has been a month of comings and goings. Lizzie, a visiting sow came for a holiday with our boar Percy whilst Prudence and Phoebe were still busy with their piglets. There appeared to be a fair attraction between Percy and Lizzie on the first day of her visit and she seemed to be on heat when she arrived, so hopefully ideal timing. There was a fair deal of ‘action’ in the first day or so, although Lizzie seemed more interested in cake than Percy! After 21 days there were no signs that Lizzie was back in season so we are hopeful that she is pregnant, but we’ll just have to wait for news on that.
When Lizzie’s owners, Jo and Tony saw our weaners, they were so taken by them that they decided to buy ten! They collected the weaners a week before Lizzie returned home and by all accounts the piglets quickly settled into their new home; despite an early escapade when the intrepid piglets decided to take out the electric fence (literally by the mouth) and run a-muck.
Andrew, me and Paul after Pigs loaded & paperwork complete!
All 26 piglets were weaned from Prudence and Phoebe and were relocated to three good homes last month. My friend Paul has joined forces with two of his friends and between them they will raise ten of the weaners.
Flo, a Belgian Blue cow runs with the older group of Belted Galloway cows, just lead Flo out of a field and the Belties follow! Last spring Flo was served by Harvey, the Belted Galloway bull and I discovered her with twins on December 9th 2009; one heifer and one bull calf we have named them Blue and Flyn.
December 30th saw the birth of three Belted Galloway calves; one heifer and two bull calves which Christopher has named Buttercup, Flash and Greg! One particular cow tends to give birth a month after the others, so we are still waiting for one more!
Another seven Belted Galloways are due between April and June, these cows are Harvey’s offspring so they were served by Waterbeck Willow , a visiting bull.