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Blackdown Banger! 

4th January 2010

A new year brings new challenges, the most pressing of which is the weather.-7 degrees last night and with heavy snow forecast tonight.  This has prompted a great flurry of activity involving extra hay for the sheep wintered away on a neighbour's farm and much wailing, gnashing of teeth and lagging of water pipes.

The "ladies in waiting" who are due to lamb starting 2 weeks today (i.e. 18th January) are all sitting in the shed, looking large and smug, as well they might.  There is an especially self satisfied group of enormous triplet bearers who are expanding in girth almost daily in the pen where they are receiving even more TLC than the rest of the ewes.  This group includes Bertha, more of whom anon.

The cattle, which are all housed in winter in light airy sheds, don't mind the cold at all, they just keep stoking up with more silage.  Good job that we made plenty, even if the quality is only "middlin".

We bought some weaners (young pigs) on Saturday, some pure Gloucester Old Spots and some Duroc crosses,  16 in all to augment our pig numbers.  A local farmer breeds GOS x Duroc piglets for us and we buy them in straight from his farm at 8-10 weeks old, however he is currently running short of piglets for us as his boar took to firing blanks recently, so we are having to top up from elsewhere.

Our new free range flock of Rhode Rock pullets are now starting to lay well inspite of weather, lovely brown eggs with good yolk colour and excellent flavour.  They are showing the yearling hens up as these older girls have not laid quite so well lately!

1st January 2010

Our New Year resolution was to get our website up and running and to keep our customers updated with latest information, but we warned - we are just starting this, so any issues/spelling errors/duff links.... let us know and we can try to fumble a fix!

Last modified: May, 2011