Good morning,
Two things to mention before we get into it today - the online shop is stocked and the pizza is ready to book for this weekend.
We’re open 12pm - 3pm this Saturday for collections and Tom’s much missed pizza.
Tom tends to sell out before the day so please book if you want to join us. Don’t forget you can order a Shrub Provisions Sussex veg box or eggs by Wednesday to collect from us on Saturday, too.
Today’s newsletter is going to focus on Jack, who has been working with Trenchmore for a few years. Only 25 years old, Jack is the youngest of our motley crew but by all measures a crucial cog that keeps the Trenchmore tractor wheels turning.
Jack didn’t grow up in a farming family but spent his childhood sat in neighbours’ tractors from the age of 2 or 3. He started working on a farm in Ashurst at 13 and spent weekends and summers there for the next 9 years, saving money and growing his experience and knowledge of working with livestock.
During his agriculture course at Plumpton College, Jack spent his placement working on a 4,500 acre arable farm. All those hours spent in the tractor cab certainly honed his driving skills but also made him realise that he wanted to work with cattle more than crops, and gave him the time to contemplate starting his own herd.
He now has 28 cows and offers regular relief work at Trenchmore and other local farms. 15 of his herd are destined to spend some time with one of our Wagyu bulls, and the offspring will be reared for the Trenchmore system. We are limited with the amount of grazing land we have available at Trenchmore and working with farmers like Jack, who share the same standards and attitudes to us mean we can collaboratively grow our herd and expand our business.
The goal is to manage his own farm but for now Jack gets a lot out of working with different farmers. There is the opportunity to learn from everyone’s best practices and tough lessons, and encourage them to share their ideas and experiences so the community can move forward together.
Jack is a safe pair of hands that we and the cattle love to see in the yard.
