odd socks and pet lambs

Here we are surfacing from lambing live although we have 22 pet lambs we get uninterrupted sleep!

We now have over 900 lambs and the shed is almost empty (still 3 to go!!)

We have had a good crop of lambs and the only challenge was the wet bank holiday Monday when we had to bring our new lambs and ewes back into the shed to dry off and warm up.

We have some characters in the pet lambs my 2 favourite are Woolly and Balaclava boy:

Woolly wasn't strong enough to follow his mother and sister out to the field so we gave him some TLC and his mother came back to visit each day to check we were looking after him, after a week she decided he was better off with his friends in the shed.

Balaclava boy born April 1st was one of Quads, 2 stayed with their mother and we lost no 4 :-( but he was lucky although his head was bald, we kept him in the porch for a week until he grew too big for his box and started following me around. We took him out to join the others but he got very cold overnight so had to be rescued again.

Lambing Tip 1: what to do with your odd socks?





I cut off the toe end and cut 2 holes for his years and folded the sock around his neck solved the odd sock problem and is keeping him warm until the wool grows :-)

 

Happy New Year

Happy New Year, lots of news and happpenings on the Farm.

We have planted approx 150 native trees this year hoping they will all catch.

This is Farmhouse breakfast week and we are involved in breakfast with a local school on Wednesday preparing home made granola bars with British rolled oats and Glamorganshire Honey a great recipe for those pumpkin seeds you kept from your Halloween pumpkins. Recipe and pictures to follow :-)

We also are having a free breakfast community event with workshops on homemade bread,poached egg prepared in the microwave and armchair exercises to keep you moving the "keep it shaking" butter making experiment will be at both events if you want more details visit here

National Farmhouse Breakfast detail at Shake up your Wake up

Sheep are now all in the shed and scanned we changed our scanning system this year and the sheep are scanned upright and is finished in a few hours.

Will be updating the website with the new video shortly

Results 33 sets of triplets, 323 sets of twins , 179 singles expected seems we will have a busy time!

Also another visit from our friends the students from Maison Familiale Rurale in March.

February- Sheep in waiting! Open Farm Sunday is coming!!

Our Welsh Farm is getting prepared for lambing lots happening in the next few months. Spring is on its way all sheep have been scanned and results good despite the cruel winter we have had.

We are hosting a french agricultural college group on the 9th of March they want to experience rural Wales. I hope they enjoy must get out the phrase book!!

Lambing will begin at the end of March and we will be lucky to have the expertise of a Bristol Uni Vet student  learning from both sides will be a great experience.

News

I am now Welsh coordinator for Open Farm Sunday an initiative of LEAF (Linking Environment And Farming).

LEAF brings farmers and consumers together to raise

awareness of how farmers are working in harmony with nature to produce good food with environmental care.

After the success of "Care for your Food We Do!" the theme this year is " Discover Life on British Farms" If you wish to find out where you can visit a farm on Open Farm Sunday June 12th 2011 please visit the website Open Farm Sunday .
If you are a farmer and would like to get involved or just thinking about it please attend one of the workshops which are being held across the UK in March/April. Please have a look OFS workshops. Attending a workshop will give you all the hints and tips you need to host a success event and could make up your mind!



Sheep Fleece what can we do with it?

A secondary school has explored natural textiles. A fleece from our sheep was attached to the teachers wooden sheep and the all clipped and processed it into different products It was spun , weaved and felted.
The website was used as a resource if you want to contact us to sign up for this resource please contact us

info@ourwelshfarm .co.uk

Prince Charles & The future of Wool

An initiative was launched by Prince Charles to enhance the qualities of wool.

A spokesman from Clarence House said: ‘The Prince was getting very concerned about the prices that farmers were getting for their fleeces and decided that something had to be done to help them.

R Whitefoot came to film our ewe lambs that have just been sheared to report on "the Future of Welsh Wool" if you wish to read more Welsh Wool a bleak future?

Wool can be used for felting, spinninng and knitting, insulation,weaving for clothes and carpet support a natural product buy wool!

We are just starting to lamb and our first set of twins appeared on Valentine's Day so keep an eye on our webcam.

Bonjour!

We had our 3rd visit from an agricultural college in France they must enjoy it here. Most of this years students were dairy farmers so they were curious about sheep farming. Husband promised to get County up and running this year as not a lot happened since they saw it last.
The college is Issat de Chatelet and we hope to visit them and Jean Claude one day.

They also were off to visit a large dairy Farm in the Vale of Glamorgan in the evening. Our welsh weather didn't let us down it was a damp and miserable Feb day!!

Earlier in the day we had a visit from Rebecca Whitefoot, studying journalism in UWIC she has been given agriculture and made a film about the future of Welsh Wool in response of Prince Charles's new campaign.

The Snow and adventures

The snow has been with us now since the 20th of Dec lots of problems only able to get out by 4WD did take car out twice failed our hill on both occasions so had to reverse it home!!
Luckily the sheep feed arrived in between christmas and New Year due to the clever lorry driver, the postman has been most days too.
We fetched our load of Barley with tractor and trailer so the sheep are warm and cosy in the shed with lots of food.A lot of farms have had trouble with sheds caving in due to snow and trouble getting feed and water out to the fields.
We have been feeding the birds each day as they are finding it difficult in this weather and our lake is frozen over there doesn't seem to be much wildlife about both our semi tame ducks have disappeared so we fear Mr Fox has found his way over the ice to the island which is usually a safe haven.
We have built the snowmen, sledged the hills,thrown the snowballs and are now ready for things to become normal again - school and shopping without wellies and boots.

YouTube on the Blog

We hope to get webcams running on the site shortly and are uploading videos onto youtube for tasters
Hope you all enjoy all sheep now in shed and Deer not far from their shelter more snow tonight.

Open Farm Sunday

Did you see us in the South Wales Echo and the Farmers Guardian.

Open Farm Sunday 2009 at Lakeside Farm Park
“Care about your food? We Do”

The day before was a washout with floods cutting some local farmers off!! Fortunately the day dawned and the rain stopped with an appearance of the sun which brought in about 350 people during the day.

This year we had “Ask a Young Farmer” and a big thank you to Llantrisant YFC for helping us. They were superb and answered lots of questions and were quite at home with the public. We called it revision for those with their GCSEs this year! Good luck for your exams everyone. Lyn and Rhidian also walked the nature trail with Lyn giving a full explanation of trees and plants on our farm along with their history. Russell is hoping some of the boy’s will be confident to shear next year as some of them have just passed their proficiency with the wool board. The public were very impressed with all of them commenting on their knowledge and manners.

The tractor and trailer rides started and the hourly rate went out of the window we had 7 jam packed trailer rides Russell had people queuing all day.
Everyone saw the display of sheep, watched them being sheared, and lambs weighed and the comparison of birth weight to now. Back at Lakeside they were able to see our wool washed, Michelle gave us a great spinning demonstration and also brought some of her knitted products from our sheep.
We had Cressida from Bridgend RDP and Helen from Glamorgan WFU pan frying our lamb chops and mincing lamb to make burgers we also were giving away cawl this was made from our lamb breast and the Abercerdin School food co op vegetable bag. They used the school’s fruit co op bag to make smoothies and fruit salad.
Thanks to Julie and Geoff Thomas with their interactive Simply the Best Training display and doubling up into other jobs through out the day. Claire from Milestone activities and a member of Glamorgan WFU gave people a Nordic walking taster session through our recently harvested fields, Bridgend Farmers Market had a presence with neighbours Charles and Gill Morgan with Bethesda butter and welsh cheeses many thanks to them

Some of the Comments:
“Very interesting and educational for the whole family”
“Very interesting, Cawl excellent, kids really enjoyed themselves”
“The staff have been brilliant any questions have been no trouble, very friendly & welcome. Very good range of animals and demonstrations from smoothie making to sheep shearing recommend this event!”

A huge thanks to everyone that participated and sponsored the day, we couldn’t have done it without the cooperation of friends, neighbours and family.
Llantrisant YFC
Glamorgan WFU
Simply the Best training: www.simplythebesttc.co.uk
Milestone activities: www.milestoneactivities.co.uk
Michelle: www.woollywumpkins.co.uk
Bridgend Farmers Market
Bridgend RDP

Also thanks to LEAF for the support and resource pack, the seeds seemed the most popular this year. Lots more budding farmers!
Open Farm Sunday 2010 -June 13th

Sheep in shed