September 2018 Farm Round Up

A glorious start to autumn, piglets galore, lots of visitors to the farm – it’s been a great month!

The 10 lovely little Large Black piglets presented to us by Frosty at the end of August have proved to be a huge time drain, and many great photo opportunities. They grow so fast and are very bold at even just one week old.
Their arrival was perfect timing for one group of visitors – mid-month, we hosted a group of keen photographers on the farm – an Instameet – who spent a few hours prowling the fields capturing some fabulous shots of the pigs. Here’s a link to their main page for the day – well worth a look.
Whilst the days have continued mostly warm, we’ve had some early frosts and heavy overnight dews which has given the farm a really autumnal feel. Blackberries have been in great supply this year and the hedgerows bursting with berries of all sorts. The oak trees have a reasonable crop of acorns too this year so in a couple of fields, the pigs spend a lot of time gazing up, waiting for their next snack to drop.
In anticipation of autumn turning to winter, we’ve been moving a few pigs around to new winter paddocks – ones that get slightly less boggy than others. Mostly, the respect their new boundaries and stay where they are put, but there’s always one!
For the holiday cottage on the farm, a piece of good news – the inspector came and reconfirmed our 5*Gold status for another year. A new lady this year who was very complimentary – we are one of only 5 cottages in Wiltshire with their top rating – nice! And another compliment – Buttle Farm was shortlisted in the Rural Business Awards in the Rural Tourism Category for the South West. Given how much tourism goes on in the South West, we’re so thrilled to make the top 5 – that feels like a win already 🙂 Fancy coming to take a look – check out the photos here.