Good morning,
Just before January draws to an end and our regular yard shop & event activities resume tomorrow, we have our 2024 notes from the field by Andrew.
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All's well that ends well. 2024 started pretty much as '23 finished - wet, wet, wet. The jet stream sat overhead and we received twice our normal ration. The cows were happily bedded up with dry straw every day and we successfully calved them all by late April, but it was a testing time for Nev, keeping them hale and hearty.
Winter wheat direct-drilled in October '23 emerged well, but by February it had drowned. We cut our losses by grazing the remnants and planned to sow spring barley as soon as the conditions permitted. The weather gods were against us so we held the herd there waiting for it to dry up, taking bales of hay out every day in the back of our little Kubota. We were battling nature, and losing.
Thankfully, things finally righted. With long days and high intensity sunlight we moved the cows onto the pastures and sowed a recovery mix of barley and peas into the morass in late May. That's a month later than I have ever planted a successful crop, but due to the ongoing rain into summer we actually made some very useful whole-crop silage in August.
Barley and peas are a superb combination - the peas help feed the crop by fixing nitrogen and then contribute protein to balance the carbs in the barley grain. The young cattle love eating it. We cut it green, bale and wrap it with a natural fermentation aid and store it under a heavy cover to protect it from crows and pigeons. Sadly, squirrels and other rodents are not so easily put off. They've eaten holes right through the cover and clearly enjoy our whole crop even more than the calves. Note to self, buy night sights this year.
Meanwhile the grass was racing ahead, it was over knee high and we were mowing again. The ground was still soft and we left the odd rut, but we couldn't hold off as the digestibility and energy levels drop like a stone once grass is in ear.
Soon as we cleared the bales we started to spread muck from the store and all was looking brighter, until we learned we would be losing the barns we rented near Warninglid. That meant we would need to provide winter housing for another 200 head. This is quite a challenge and occupied a lot of my time this year.
To cut a long story short, we pursued a lot of blind alleys while putting up an infill roof between two of our existing barns, just in case. In the nick of time we gratefully took a tenancy on a neighbour's farm, upon their retirement. We absorbed their Angus cows at Trenchmore and housed all our youngsters on their farm, just as the October rains broke. New team member Gareth and his family moved in to look after them and I must say being back in control has given us all a new lease of life.
Away from the cattle, this apple harvest was a wash out. Apples are naturally biennial and 2023 was a bumper crop, so we expected a drop, but the cloudy and wet weather resulted in very little fruit set, poor fruit fill and low sugars in what we did harvest. Suffice to say it was not a year to remember. Fortunately we have good stock of 2023 base in our stainless steel tanks and being a fruit wine, cider actually mellows for several years - as long as you keep the air out.
Despite the miserable summer, 2024 saw our best ever sales of Silly Moo with especially good growth on tap in a variety of Sussex independent free houses. Thank you publicans for keeping it honest and local.
On another positive note we made great progress with the yard events with superb music, delicious independent produce and a packed cyder shack. What a success that has been - we've enjoyed some memorable meals in there from visiting chefs and the reputation of our resident burger-meisters Patrick and George is justifiably growing. They've spread their wings recently and are busy breaking big in Chichester, with an upcoming slot at Brighton’s Shelter Hall.
They will still be at the farm every Saturday, starting tomorrow. There'll be wagyu burgers on the grill and Clare will be pouring pints and selling our beef. We look forward to welcoming you back and catching up on your news.
You can pre-order beef, cider & burgers here, and book onto our Valentine’s evening steak night with Sam Lambert here.
