January 2019 Farm Round Up

After a crazy busy Christmas and New Year, the dust settled and we had a lovely review from our cottage guests over the festive season – always nice to get feedback!  If you fancy a luxury break-away this Spring, check out some photos and availability HERE.

The Guinea Fowl aren’t so keen on the super cold nights – they were originally from Africa after all. They get a generous scoop of corn every evening to help fuel them through the winter evenings – and there is a new member of the team – a Partridge has joined the flock. He’s a lot smaller than the guineas but they seem to rub along together very happily.
Whilst we think we have bad weather here in the South of England, some pig farmers around the globe have it much worse than we do. We were delighted to welcome a fellow Tamworth pig farmer from Alaska to the farm this month – Jenni was on holiday in London for a few days and couldn’t leave England without coming and meeting some local pigs. She was very taken with our Mangalitzas and I would not be surprised to hear that she adds some to her herd in the coming year.

We try to have our sows farrowing in Spring and Summer but sometimes Mother Nature intervenes and plans don’t go quite to schedule.  In mid-month, our lovely Large Black sow, known to us as Fatty, produced new life into the nasty weather.   No doubt they’d be happier if it was sunny all the time, but they are native breeds – they’re fine all snuggled up in the straw.  And extra rations for mum!

We have a visiting boar with us at the moment – Jacko is here snuggling up with our lovely Berkshire sow, Eyelashes – fingers crossed for the patter of tiny trotters in the Spring!

Overall, January has been quite kind on the weather front – definitely drier than last year which is a very good thing, some very cold nights followed by glorious sunny mornings, and a few very impressive sunsets.  

But, as the month ended, the weather warnings started arriving – a very frosty start to January 31st and snow to come they say, lots of it apparently.  Hopefully not as cold as last year’s Beast from the East.  Keep your fingers crossed for us.