Cows springing into action this Spring!

Spring is here in more ways than one!

Cows have been out in the fields since mid March, munching away at the first Spring flush of grass.  And the calving season is well underway toowith over 140 to down calve before the end of May!

Grass is growing well, milk production is up and overall quality good! So far so good! We aim to Spring block calve most of our cows each year, for efficiency and to make the most of our grass. We run a grazing system where our herd is outside at grass for 9 months of the year!

 Once the cow has calved, she feeds the calf her own colostrum for the first day or two, then I become step mother to all the babies when they move to the calf pens, feeding milk powder mixed with warm water twice daily, every day, 2 litres in the morning and two litres in the afternoon. A very satisfying job too. After 8-10 weeks I wean the calves onto calf rearer pellets, fresh water and straw to munch at. When the warmer weather comes, they will be out in the paddock in front of our house, so they can nibble at some Spring grass too. It's fabulous to watch the calves racing around outside just before bedtime, playing chase, skipping, tumbling, racing about before they settle down for the night in a huddle, keeping close contact for warmth and security.

 Baby calves develop rapidly in the first six months of life, gaining kilos of weight every day. The happier they are the healthier they are and develop into big strong heifers in preparation of calving them at 24 months old. So the baby calves I'm rearing this spring, will produce a calf of their own in Spring 2019, and then produce milk for the tank. More milk in the tank equals more money in the bank! Happy Spring time!

World Ayrshire Conference in USA

I'm writing this on our final day in the hotel to mark the experiences we have seen and done.  Over the last two weeks, Mark and I have been apart of the World Ayrshire Conference which began in the New England State of Massachusetts!  We also took this opportunity prior to the tour, for a four night stop over in The Big Apple, (New York).  Amazing and fantastic time in this major iconic City!

We instantly made heaps of new friends with a fantastic bunch of "Ayrshire Breeders" from all over the world.  I knew dairy cows were in countries like New Zealand, Australia and USA but not that Ayrshires were also farmed in Kenya, South Africa, Columbia and Canada!

Attending the World Conference for the first time, exceeded our expectations beyond belief.  We watched the Ayrshire showing,  part of a 16 day State Fair Exposition (which was celebrating its Centenary this year).  Known as The Big E,  this large State Fair was a combined event for the five New England States of Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Maine and Connecticut.

The coach took us from farm to farm, viewing excellent examples of Ayrshires at their home, meeting their owners, enjoying a typical American meal with all their family members.  We even had a day with the Armish community, a ride in a waggon pulled by the Mules used to do the land work,  shared a meal they usually serve for a wedding feast!  How honoured were we!

The US tour went through New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Ohio, Illinois and Wisconsin States visiting seven farms along the way.  A stop off at a Thoroughbred stud where 'Cigar' was born, and a tour of a Fair Oaks dairy where a huge amount of cows were milked on a 72 point rotary milking parlour three times a day!

We concluded at Kalahari Resort for the World Ayrshire Conference meetings and dinner, which is   where we left the Conference Tour, to return home.  For the following week, the delegates were making for Madison and attend the World Dairy Expo! A Mecca for all things dairy in USA and Canada and it seems the rest of the World!!

Can't be September already?

Having a busy summer is a poor excuse for not being able to do a blog since May!  Today is the first day of September, officially Autumn!  Although we've not had a lot of hot, sizzling sunshine, the weather we've had over Somerby has been ideal for grass growing.  My husband says that if we get a shower of rain once a fortnight, it will keep us in grass through the summer.  And it has been just that.  Spot on.    As you know I now measure grass growth weekly using my plate meter, and two weeks ago was the lowest grass growth in a week so far this year, but last week (after a fair amount of rain) has been better!

A new bull arrived this summer - meet Real Deal (akas Dickenson's Real Deal - Dicky for short)  He's bred in Canada and arrived in the UK as an embryo.  He's over a year old now and running with similar aged heifers for them to calve next May/June when they turn two years old!!  More milking cows all homebred, to add to our enlarging herd!

As a consequent of all the moisture this summer, our herd has enjoyed grazing a fresh paddock after each milking, nibbling the new shoots of growth, keeping our yields up and quality too.  We're milking 140 (most of our herd) so it takes a little longer because they're giving much more milk than last year.  Also 36 first time heifers calved in June which was an extremely busy period for Mark, David (our relief milker) and myself - Chief Calf Rearer.

August has been a busy month for Farm Walks too and many groups of WI's or Probus groups have enjoyed visiting the farm seeing the many baby calves and watching the cows being milked in the parlour.  I love showing people around the farm and answering their questions but probably the highlight of the visit is the afternoon tea and cakes to finish!

Talking of afternoon teas - we've had two major birthdays during July. Charlotte turning 21 and my 50th! (Yes, I know I don't look it!!!!)  One extremely kind gift received was an afternoon tea at Stapleford Park which we undertook last week - wow, diet got pushed aside for that event I can tell you!

Our son Harry (now 18) finished his placement year in early July and has been a much valued help at home!  Mowing grass for hay, turning it and carting & stacking it after a contractor baled it for us.  Spreading fertiliser and topping pasture with the new mower!  He's waiting for straw bale carting and stacking now, if it ever stops raining for the combines to get going again!  Then its back for his final year at Reaseheath College later on this month, so all change again on the farm.

Charlotte has been working really hard running her own business, a livery yard since she returned from her Australia and New Zealand trip.  She's also got her own horse competing again after his injury earlier this year.  I enjoy spending time with them both and love competing every weekend!  I try and help her out when I can which makes a nice change for me from the moo moos!

Often visitors ask me if Mark and I manage to get away for a holiday each year.  Yes we do especially now Charlotte and Harry are around it's much easier for us to get away so we nipped off to Lynton and Lymouth in Exmoor for a week at the end of July, in a quite cliff top hotel.  A most magical and peaceful place.  Loved it.

Looking forwards, more cows due to calve at the end of September and October, so more babies to rear and the diary is filling up nicely with bookings for my Farm Talks for the rest of this year and into the next.  No doubt if you're reading this, you've probably met me at a talk or even been on a Farm Walk.  Please feel free to pass on my details to anyone else who might be interested in the life of a Dairy Farmer's Wife!!  Reasonable rates and bookings welcome!!

Spring into springtime!

Currently away from the farm this week attending for the third time the National Ayrshire Cattle Conference in the beautiful county of Cumberland!  Up north on the borders of Scotland,  we're spending the daytime visiting several well bred herds of pedigree Ayrshires and spending the evenings socialising at the bar before dinner and usually afterwards too.

It's great to get off the farm for a break but especially this year as our children (if you can call them that now they're 20 & 18) to look after everything. So pleased and extremely proud of them even though Mark has phoned home at least once a day especially as we're in the middle of our spring calving block. We've had 11 out of our 38 new heifers calved so far and probably 30 of the milking cows. Only problem is we've had more bull calves than heifers. Milk yields are up on this time last year,  grass is growing well and plenty of it. Now that milk quotas have gone, no limit to production so pleased with our new grazing system. We've also built a new track to the fields and done miles of electric fencing and the cows have adapted well.

Getting back to the Conference. We are staying at the fabulous Crown Hotel in Wetheral near Carlisle  and it's very pleasant indeed. The large comfortable bed and relaxed surroundings are making our visit most enjoyable. Not to mention the contents of the bar each evening!

NEW Year, NEW Beginnings!

So what has 2015 got NEW for us this year?

NEW Milk Price for a start - It made headline news yesterday.  It's official.  Milk is now cheaper than bottled water!  How can that be?  Farmers, consumers and pundits all aired their views via Facebook and Twitter (of which I follow #teamdairy, #discoverdairy, #DairyCrisis) and it even made half an hour on the Jeremy Vine lunchtime programme on Radio 2!  Simon Mayo played songs for dairy farmers in his Drivetime early evening show!  Articles have made it into The Daily Telegraph, The Mirror and countless others!

NEW Enterprise - Having heard a criticism on the radio that dairy farmers aren't good a marketing or branding their products like they have done with bottled water.  So we're doing something about it.  We have decided to sell our milk at the farm gate!  We have got the approval from the Food Standards Agency so we've bought litre sized bottles and intend to fill them with fresh milk from the tank and sell at £1 each.  The all important branding and logo (seen right) says exactly what it is!  This milk is not pasteurised - so totally whole, farm fresh and proper healthy milk.  Just Milk, Just Healthy!

NEW Facebook Page -  this is very new.  Today with the help of my sister Susan, I've built a FB page for Just Milk Somerby (there's already a site for Just Milk - so don't get us mixed up)  and learning to market it, the 21st century way - Social Media!    To join the page tap in Just Milk Somerby and follow us!  I will add plenty of photos of the moo moos, especially the baby calves and some of the new bulls on the farm.

NEW Bulls on the farm -  Hello to Bandit and  Paddington!  Goodbye to Windfall and Oreo!  Bandit and Paddington are the same age (not quite two years) and share the same pen.  They're good mates!  Bandit is pure bred Ayrshire (red and white) and Paddington is an Aberdeen Angus so black all over with the cutest head full of curls and a friendly face!  They take it in turns to run with the herd of cows!  We're in bulling season at the moment then the bulls will have a rest from the beginning of February until May/June.   We had to say goodbye to Windfall and Oreo, who were over 3 years of age, as they had done their duty on our farm.  (We have to move the bulls on after two years as they can't run with their daughters can they?)

NEW Lowest Number of Dairy Farmers in England and Wales - at the beginning of this new year, the total has now dropped to below 10,000.   By comparison, back in 2001 (F&M year remember?) there were 20,191 dairy farmers and today we're down to 9,960.  Sixty dairy farmers went out of cows in the month of December alone!  If the trend continues, we could see further drops in numbers to 5,000 by 2025!  That's only 10 years away and I should be retiring by then!  But it's OK, we're not planning to give up quite that easily.  Anyhow,  we've got Harry (18yrs) who's been bred for the job!!!

New Year, New Beginnings and New Hope for the Future.  We've got to stay positive and keep doing what we're good at! 

Producing farm fresh - high quality - totally
BRITISH MILK.

                      Here's a cute photo to finish with!  A couple of this years heifer calves!  The Future!

 

 

 

 

 

100 Years at Long Clawson Dairy - home of Stilton cheese production

100 Years at Long Clawson Dairy

1911

Thomas Hoe Stevenson ran his farm with two sisters who produced Stilton in a room next to the farmhouse.  Thomas Hoe and 11 other local farmers set up a Co-operative to sell liquid milk and Stilton cheese and purchased The Royal Oak empty pub in Long Clawson which is still the headquarters today.  Today 43 farms in Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire supply the dairy with 58 million litres of milk every year.

1920s

The telephone and electricity arrives at the dairy in difficult financial times, but the dairy recovered by 1929.

1930s

With three million people unemployed, times were hard again at the dairy.  The Stilton Cheese Makers’ Association was formed to lobby for regulation to protect the quality and origin of the cheese.

1940s

Again the dairy was in difficulties and in 1939, they were asked not to produce Stilton but remained in operation by converting into Cheddar cheese production, the chosen cheese for rations.

1950s

Stilton was back in fashion.  Inspired by books on food by Elizabeth David and Fanny Craddock, no dinning was complete without a cheese board, and no cheese board complete without Stilton.  Also during this decade, Long Clawson Dairy won awards for Best Stilton at the London Dairy Show in 1953.  Milk demand increased too and in 1960 the dairy sold 4,400 gallons a day compared to 40 gallons in 1940.

 

 

1960s

The launch of the first blended cheeses including White Stilton fruit blends.  The legal protection and certification trademark was established in the three counties of Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire.  It’s the only cheese with this level of protection.

1970s

Expansion to 200 employees delivering milk to 16,000 customers and producing 100,000 cheese a year.

1980s

The liquid milk market was tough as competition from supermarkets selling low-cost milk began.  Long Clawson Dairy decided to concentrate on cheese production and sold off the milk division.  They opened a new dairy at Harby in 1984, producing 325,000 cheeses per year and still winning awards.

1990s

This decade saw the creation of new products such as Paneer for the increasing Asian market.  The Product of Designation of Origin (PDO) was awarded to Stilton and it governs where Stilton cheese is made.

Present Day

The dairy at Long Clawson continues to thrive and innovate.  Investing in new buildings and winning 25 awards for Aged Leicestershire Red since 2006.  Smooth Blue as 3 Supreme Champion awards.  The dairy continues to be run by farmers – many are descendents of the original 12 families.  It now relies on 43 farms for milk to create a very special range of cheese.

History of Stilton Cheese - "The King of Cheese"

History of Stilton – how it all came about.

“Like so many types of food and commodities, Stilton developed – it was not invented, it did not appear overnight.  Today each of the six dairies producing Stilton cheese uses its own recipe – not one dairy produces Stilton cheese in exactly the same way as its competitors.”

 

In the book by Trevor Hickman “The History of Stilton Cheese”1995, Trevor explains that a cream cheese was being made in the parish of Wymondham, Leicestershire.  Many individuals living in farming communities in this area would make cheese from their surplus milk.  When it was offered for sale, it would have been given a variety of names.  However, a blue veined cream cheese made from cows’ milk was produced by farmers in Wymondham as soon as pastures were enclosed within the open-field system in the 18^th Century.

Undoubtedly the cheese we now recognize as Stilton was developed because of increased demand, most probably as a result of the development of road links throughout the country.  The most important highway to be developed was the Great North Road on which the town of Stilton had been a stopping point for centuries for travellers.  With the development of the coaching trade, not only was cheese carried on journeys to be eaten but also purchased for retail and consumption in the towns and cities that were the eventual destinations of the travellers.  So ‘the cheese of Stilton’ was created. Mrs Orton, (a farmer’s wife from Little Dalby) is claimed to have made the first Stilton cheeses in Leicestershire in 1730.

Stilton cheese is unique; it has its own distinctive taste and quality when it has reached maturity.  The size and shape of Stilton varied somewhat.  It is possible that Mrs Frances Pawlett of Wymondham, a cheese-maker of high repute, can be credited with applying the standards of the day, rationalizing shape, size and quality.

Mrs Pawlett set a standard, producing her own cheese and acting as “middleman”, and selected only the best of the other dairies’ cheeses for delivery to Stilton.  Many hostelries in the small town competed to sell the cheese.  Legend has it that Cooper Thornhill, the owner of The Bell, in association with Mrs Pawlett, sold the best cheese in the middle years of the 18^th century.  Until Cooper Thornhill became involved, it was also very much a seasonal trade, only being on offer when available.  When the arrival of the railways in the 1840s came, this altered the Stilton Cheese industry immediately.  The railway system allowed more of the London aristocracy to visit Melton Mowbray in support of the local hunts and once they had discovered this cheese, they promoted it to an enormous extent.  Railway wagons filled with Stilton cheese for London on a weekly basis.

Until the building of specialized dairies at the end of the 19^th century, it was always very localized.  Hundreds of farmers’ wives made Stilton with their surplus milk, often producing only one or two per day.  These would be sold in various markets especially at fairs in Melton Mowbray.  Eventually co-operatives were formed and specialist dairies were built, including the formation of Long Clawson Dairy in 1911 by Thomas Hoe Stevenson.