DRINK ∙ FOOD ∙ GOOD TIMES
Farm Director, Hamish Stewart, provides a seasonal farming update.
01.04.26
Throughout January and February, though it felt like spring may never arrive, we somehow got to March, the birds slowly started to sing louder, the days gradually got longer and suddenly everything sprung to life and it’s all systems go around the farm. The list of jobs that need doing at this time of year can seem endless and it’s a challenge trying to prioritise that list of jobs.
During March each year, the list includes lambing around two thirds of our ewes plus fertilising our grass and all the crops we planted in the autumn to keep them fed. We also cultivate the fields to make nice seedbeds ready for planting the wheat, oats, lupins, poppies and borage and then turn round and plant all these crops as well.
The cows at the dairy have been housed inside since early November. During this time, they have been fed on the silage we made last summer with our new silage making equipment. As this was the first time making silage fully in-house, everyone on the farm was excited to open the silage pits last autumn to see the results. The quality of our silage has been fantastic and cows seem to agree, as they have been producing a lot (about 10% more each per day) of excellent quality milk.
The milk our cows produce is about 5% butter-fat which makes it much creamier than normal bottled milk, ideal for making cheese and butter, some of which is sold in the Farm Shop.
As the days lengthen and the grass starts to grow, the cows will soon be back out grazing the fields around the dairy. Now as far as I am concerned, the day the cows go out, marks the start of spring!
