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.

Tighten your belts, the bad times are coming!

After a very busy year, producing lots of lovely milk for Stilton Cheese production with a good price, above the cost of production, the tables have turned.  As from 1 November we are now only getting 27.5 pence per litre which is way below the cost of production on our farm.  With winter almost upon us, we're going to have to "tighten our belts" and look at cutting costs and don't spend on CapEx!

Our cows are looking wonderful and are still outside grazing in the fields everyday for at least another month!  We are feeding well made silage during the evenings when they are kept inside in the cubicle shed, which this year we've invested in some smart Cozy Cow Mattresses (CapEx #1).
At first they were reluctant to lie on the new mattresses but once we'd added some fresh wheat straw, they began to sniff and nibble the straw and slowly, gained confidence to have a go at lying on the mattresses!  Funny old things, cows?  Don't like change or upset to their routine!

Talking of upsetting the cows routine.  A few weeks ago the electric supply went off just before evening milking.  We phoned our supplier, who promised it would be on by 5pm!!! WHAT!!!  we've got a herd of cows to milk?????  Eventually, the power was restored only to stop half an hour later, so the units fell off the cows udders and we had to sort them out again into groups of those been milked, those half way through milking and those waiting to be milked!  It was very upsetting for our lovely laid back herd.  Not knowing why we want them back through the parlour AGAIN!  We eventually finished evening milking at 8pm and lost milk production by 100 litres the next day due to the disruption.  If only we could get our own generator? but that would mean spending on CapEx!

 

Lovely Summers Day with the herd!

 

 

Spring Turn Out at Last!

We have finally turned our cows out during the day, this weekend.  With the spring sunshine on their backs, it is always a joy to watch, as all our lady cows kick up their heels and race about the field, mooing to each other and excited to see fresh grass again. Milk production will be down a bit as a result!

Although we had the coldest night last night, with a hard frost first thing this morning.  But the sun always comes through and melts it all away by the time we finished morning milking.

We are two weeks away from our now annual TB testing of the whole herd.  So all our baby calves, yearling heifers and some dry cows are still inside the sheds.  Once we've done the test and the reading 4 days later, they will be wormed, vaccinated and turned out into fresh pasture for the summer.  They can't wait, nor can we!

On the look out for TWO new bulls.  Sadly, our first bull Mulberry is no longer required.  We have to sell him as the next lot of heifers need to be bulled this summer, are all his daughters!  We've been bull shopping this weekend, to see a Ayrshire breeder in Norfolk, who may let us know when one of his cows delivers a bull calf.  We may buy a very young bull calf and rear it on our farm ready for next year.  We still need two for this summer even though we've got Mulberry's replacement, Windfall on farm now.  It's very technical this breeding lark you know!

Just to catch up with the family.  Charlotte has finished working in Oz after six wonderful months and has moved to a large dairy farm (1300 cows) in North Island, New Zealand, where  she's working looking after children and horses for the farmer and his wife.  They are, of course, coming into Autumn and Winter months ahead.  They are a hunting family and are happy for Charlotte to hunt too.  She has her mount Max, a ex Show Jumper and very comfortable ride!  I've got to post out to her, her hunting jacket and boots!

Harry is away in Cheshire, still at Agricultural College.  He's home most weekends and works very hard when he is home.  Last weekend, he spread tons and tons of two year old well rotted manure over the silage fields, to fertilise them.  And again this weekend, he's muck carting from the yards at the farm, to the muckheap in the fields, so it can degrade and rot over the summer and hopefully, be spread before winter.

Our bag fertiliser has arrived too, 45 tonnes and we've also invested in a second hand fertiliser spinner for the tractor.  Harry and his granddad, are hoping to put that on next weekend.  It's all go, go, go.

So, as you can see, even though some of the stock are outside during the day, making life easier on the stocking front, there's so much more to do now that the ground has dried up and grass is starting to grow.

Only job for me to do now, is go out there and walk the fields, measuring the grass growth.  Someone's got to do it!

Farming Downunder!

G'day folks. My first blog from down under and first for 2014.  Today we're near Brisbane in Queensland and the forecast is 41 degrees no less!

I've been here for one week, visiting our daughter Charlotte and we're touring the Gold Coast up towards Cairns in the north. Yesterday we managed to visit a dairy farm and their 220 Holsteins. Even in this extreme heat of high summer, the relaxed cows are outside strip grazing grass and wander back to the shade of the barn where water sprinklers cool them down whilst waiting their turn to go through the robotic milking stalls.  They have four robots and the cows choose when to be milked with the average of 2.7 times in 24 hours.  We listened to the excellent Farmer Gregie explaining the process and his attention to cow welfare, cow comfort with the water mattress cubicles and rubber matting in top of the walkways, was evident everywhere. Due to milk price pressures, this forward thinking family now process all their milk (5000lts per day) on farm in the brand new milk bottling plant and distribute locally to outlets daily. This venture employs 12 people and markets its milk as '4 Real Milk' from the Scenic Rim.  As there are only about 450 dairy farmers left in the whole of Queensland, all their milk is mainly sold on the domestic market, leaving milk producers in Victoria and SA exporting milk products across the world. In fact all the milk products in the shops are mostly Australian with some imported cheeses including our own famous Stilton Cheese!

It was interesting hearing all the same economic problems we face at home, with the supermarkets taking much of the blame, but Farmer Gregie has the work/ life balance much better than my husband does as Farmer Gregie was just off in his new Jaguar to play a round of golf!

Although robots are doing the lions share of the milking it's not a labour free farm. A young cow was calving and still needed a hand, which delayed Farmer Gregie a little and the strip wire in the paddocks needed moving. Also the computers need constant adjustments but all in all the whole operation ran smoothly and stress free both for the cows and the farmer.  A great eye opener and of much interest to me.  

Most of the time, Gregie spent his time educating through farm visits, talks to groups and through local media, the benefits of real milk.  Pasteurised but not over processed.  This model was refreshing to see in a country of extremes!

Well done to Farmer Gregie!

To see for yourself, visit www.scenicrim4realmilk.com.au or Facebook.com/roboticdairy

One week to go before Christmas!!

Oh heck, only a week to go until the big day!  Why does everyone go mad under the pressure to produce such a perfect family day?  It's only like cooking a big Sunday roast dinner, which I try to do every week.  The shops are ONLY closed for one day! If you've forgotten anything or not enough, then tough!  We won't starve or miss out because we have all taken one day off!

Well some minority occupations won't have a day off, they have to keep on working throughout!  Livestock farmers must tend to their animals every day of the year and Christmas Day is no different.  So it's a fairly short event for us.  Having milked, bedded, fed and cleaned up after our 190 herd and youngstock BEFORE breakfast, we have a short time to open presents, eat a fairly big meal (always at 1pm sharp) then an after lunch snooze, wake up for the Queen's Speech then back outside before the daylight runs out to feed everything, clean up and milk the herd!  As I've said before, it would be so much better to have Christmas in July for us, when the cows and youngstock are all outside feeding and spreading manure themselves.  In fact, an antipodean Christmas would suit us better.  As I'm about to find out.

For me this year, the festive period is going to be even shorter as I'm off to Australia on Boxing Day afternoon to visit our daughter Charlotte, who's working out there for six months.  I fly in to Sydney Airport on 28 Dec, and together we will have three whole weeks of fun in the sun.  Unfortunately, I'm leaving Mark hard at it at home with the help of our Kiwi student, Jayden and Harry will be home from College to help out too.  So I don't feel guilty at all!!!!

Harry is having the time of his life at College in Cheshire.  Tonight he's gone to the Winter Wonderland Ball in his first Dinner Suit!  As it's his birthday on Thursday (he turns 17)  he got the dinner suit he wanted.  My only concern is the food and beer fights that I'm sure will happen during the evening at some stage.  He looks fabulously handsome in his DJ, with red bow tie and braces.  Those girls at the Ball will be fighting for him I'm sure - then again I would be biased wouldn't I?

Anyway, hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and New Year!  I shall be a bit ahead of you this year celebrating the arrival of 2014 in Sydney Harbour 11 hours before you do.  Weird but really looking forward to the experience!

Happy Christmas readers!

Fireworks and thats nothing to do with Guy Fawkes!

As the seasons come and go, life on the farm changes.  Work loads change.  Thankfully, we have extra help these days with Jayden and some work experience students who are coming regularly every weekend to gain experience and help us out!

Moving calves around this weekend which prompted me to explain to the students, that "there might be some shouting and swearing, so don't take it personally, its just part of the job!"  But I need not have worried so.  With some careful planning, we moved three calves through to the next door pen, making that pen hold 15, then three from the older pen into the middle pen,(now up to 11) and then fetch in the 5 yearlings from outside, who now live with the older calves (8 months) making them 10 and with the seven in my yard, that makes it 43 heifers for next year!!

I also got the Saturday team (don't forget Harry's home at weekends and he does loads of work with the new tractor, bedding, feeding silage, scraping up muck and loading dump trailer to move the muck away down the fields), to do some physical brushing up, and clearing drains so all this rain water from the roofs goes straight down the drain and not into our mucky yards!

November began last week with a couple of talks.  One to Southwell U3A on 5th November to approx 280 in the audience.  Wow, that was a big one!  On the stage with my headset microphone and the remote for the slide projector, I whizzed through the talk and left 20 mins for questions, which I think worked really well.  2kg of Stilton cheese was sampled and hopefully, everyone enjoyed hearing of my tales from our farm.  One lady asked if she could tape record my talk so she would do a write up later.  Here is an extract:-

"When I first knew we were to have a talk from a farmer's wife I didn't expect to hear anything of particular interest.  Her opening remarks were,  ' I am Jane Barnes.  I am a farmer's wife from Melton Mowbray in Leics in a village called Somerby.  I'm married to Mark and Mark is a rare breed!' I realised immediately that I was about to listen to someone with a good sense of humour who would hold my attention and interest.

I wasn't disappointed!"

That was a relief then!

The next day I visited Trent Valley Mens Probus group of about 60 in Colwick, Nottingham.  Mr President stood up and introduced me finishing with the words ".......now listen and learn.  Jane commands your attention at all times, I know, I've seen her before......"  

Quite worried I've turned into a monster on the stage!  Well I've always liked to make an impression and enlighten the room, just like Guy Fawkes!

Seasons Changing and a break to Sunny Hunny!

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr........  storms, heavy showers and the north wind!  So we've just had the worst storm in years, knocking trees and branches about.  Having just had our hedges cut, little shelter for the cows and youngstock out there.  So tonight the cows are staying inside.  Yippeee!!! (for the cows not for us).  That means the work load has just doubled.

Mark and I had a short break away from the farm last week in Sunny Hunney (Hunstanton, Norfolk for those that don't know the lingo).  The fresh sea air, the clear blue skies, great meals out every night and change of scenery revitalizing our wellbeing.  We had a great rest, leaving Harry and Jayden to do all the work at home.  (Harry was on half term break from College).   Trevor came to do most of the milkings but they had to milk several evenings, so there's a milestone achieved too!

My niece Catherine, has just turned 18 and we were invited round for supper to celebrate on Friday.  Met her new boyfriend and watched the first video recordings of Catherine as a new born and my Charlotte (who's just over a year older).  It was a very tear-jerking moment for me and one that pulled at my heart-strings because a) she's all grown up and b) I'm missing her now, it's been  two whole months since she left us to go to Australia.  Thank God someone invented Skype which seems to keep me going and lots of emails and text messages too.

Harry's back at College now and really has settled in well.  He  seems keen to get on with the work and turning into a thoroughly nice young man!  Quite impressed with him at the moment, long may it continue, especially as he's now turned his hand to the odd milking when he's home.

So Monday morning has seen a hive of activity in the farmhouse.  We've had the central heating boiler serviced and repaired, new tank of oil arrived, chimney swept ready for lighting the fire in the sitting room, cleared out some dining room furniture to the local saleroom (as the cattle trailer is spotlessly clean after Cousin Tom's power washing it last week) and a new lad Silas has come for a weeks work experience.  He wants to be a vet.  Haven't we enough vets in the country?  We also have a school girl coming most weekends to help out to gain work experience to work in farming!  She seems unfazed so far but a long way for her to go.  Now I've picked up a message from our local Vicar, who's son is also keen on getting work experience on our farm.  Wished we could earn money out of all this "work experience" going on!

Only got one talk this week but it's a first.  I'm off to Southwell in Nottinghamshire to give my talk to a WI "Group" so up to 60 members present.  I've got a load of Stilton waiting in the fridge to take for them to taste.  Always a favourite especially at WI's.

Opening Meet for the Cottesmore hounds tomorrow.  Although I'm not hunting this season, I might go along to see them all and say hello.  Its always a special meet at Johnny Weatherby's at Preston Lodge.  They meet in our village on Saturday too, and the Master has been to see Mark this morning.  Oh I wish it would dry up a bit before all those thundering hooves cross our land on Saturday.

Fingers crossed!

Living without broadband.........never again!

Sorry for the delay in getting another blog on my page.  It's has been quite a while since I last added some news to life at Southfields Farm but we have been interrupted by broadband breakdowns.

It's half term week this week, so Harry is home for one week from Reaseheath College and Mark and I have taken this opportunity to jet off...........to Hunstanton for the week!   Well, Mark's getting a week of lazying about, with 6 morning a lie-ins! 

So this morning, up early (5.30am) to leave Hunstanton and return home (did it in 1hr 45mins - hope the highway coppers were still asleep) as there has been a pressing need since Friday to get our broadband up and running again.  BT Openreach visited us this morning, to repair yet another loose wire inside the house, making our broadband connect a 100 times better than it was!   I'm now a happy person again......phew!  

Life without broadband makes you feel you've lost the use of both arms.  We have become so used to all its multitasking, I'm sure my computer is a woman!  Like all things on our farm, the females are working hard, multitasking and producing the goods, even if sometimes a little tempermental.

However, the boys Harry and Jayden are home alone this week (maybe not, cousin Tom has arrived tonight to stay for a "while"!)   Three young men home has brought life back to the place.

In case you're confused....... I've left Mark (not in the sense of marriage separation) in Hunstanton and returned back to do a "Talk" in Southwell this lunchtime.  I hate messing my bookings around just to fit in a holiday, so I've returned back for a couple of days to check the farm, the cows, host a farmwalk tomorrow, make sure Trevor our relief milker is OK and feed the boys.  They did manage two nights feeding themselves.  Oooh and to see our little dog Beattie too and the horses, who are living like kings in heaven, the amount of long grass they've got in their field. 

As the nights are drawing in, the chickens went to bed this evening at 5.45pm cos they hate all this rain and very windy tonight.  We opened up the cubicle shed to offer bed space for the cows, and they didn't say no.  About 30 or so, went straight into the stalls, to relax on the bed of straw even though the gate is open for them to walk out to the fields.  It's not cold, just very, very wet!  The milk yield is dropping rapidly - we've been feeding our silage from the clamp for 5-6 weeks now and are expecting more cows to calve shortly.  Winter is only around the corner, hence Mark's quick break to the "far east" to get him fit and well for the months of hard work ahead!

Hopefully, it won't be too long before I report again, about life down on Southfields Farm. 

New Toy on the Farm!

Look what's just arrived on the farm today!  It's not very often we have a new piece of kit.  In fact it's been 14 years since we last bought a new tractor.  I remember because I took a picture of Harry sitting in side the back wheel and Charlotte sitting on the steps to the cab.  Not sure either of them will be small enough to do that now!

Although it looks new, and is new to us, it is in fact 8 years old.  But as it's arrived via an Agricultural Machinery firm, they've repaired, cleaned and replaced bits and pieces to make it look as new as possible.  Not bad for £38k!  (We did have a VERY old Massey Fergusson to part exchange though to soften the blow!)  Let's hope the milk price stays above 30ppl for the next 5 years to help pay for it!

Harry besides himself and can't wait until he's back from College this weekend to "play" with it.  I wonder how long before its gets dirty?

Boys and their toys hey?

Stilton Cheese Milk!

The world famous Stilton Cheese from Long Clawson.

We are proud to sell all the milk we produce from our Pedigree Ayrshire herd, to Long Clawson who process it into Stilton.  This gets exported all over the world but it can only be made from milk where the cows are grazing in the three counties of Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire.

As dairy farmers, we have to produce the right sort of milk the dairy wants and at the right time of the year.  That time in now.  The dairy is in full production because the milk we're sending now, will become the Stilton you will eat this Christmas!

Long Clawson Dairy needs milk with high protein and high butterfat content.  We have a standard to achieve of 4.1% butterfat and 3.3% protein and our Ayrshire ladies are producing that in abundance.  Thanks to the ideal weather pattern this year and the fact that we now calve most of our herd in March, April, May and June.  Once a cow has calved, she will produce the most milk in her daily yield during the first three months of lactation.  So all the June calvers are in peak of production in Sept.

I give a lot of talks about dairy farming and also have groups round our farm regularly.  At each event I always bring along some Stilton Cheese fresh from the dairy, so my audience can taste it.  Everyone loves it and thats because you have to serve it at room temperature.  Let the cheese breath!

Long Clawson Dairy has an excellent website, with great ideas for Stilton in recipes and you can even order online!  You will find it at www.clawson.co.uk  They also have facebook and twitter pages.

So on the run up to Christmas, please buy British Cheeses and give them as gifts but especially Stilton with a bottle of Port perhaps!

Our farm on Local Radio

Yesterday, a recording made recently, whilst a group visited our farm on a Farm Walk, went live on GravityFM radio station in Grantham, Lincs.  I thought it a very good piece so if you wish to hear it, click on the link below!

http://webmail.tiscali.co.uk/cp/ps/Mail/ExternalURLProxy?d=tiscali.co.uk&u=jane.barnes&url=http://www.youtube.com/watch!!v~~07NMG2IebMI^^amp;feature~~c4-overview^^amp;list~~UUojvxvQM-g8pRXqEi-urV9A&urlHash=-1.7981179234359022E195

It's all change down on the farm!

It's all change in our household. 

Charlotte is on her "gap year" to life!  She's in Sydney, Australia working with a family looking after ponies and horses as a groom.  She's been there a week now and has the job for six long months!  How am I going to manage without her around?  Then the plan is to move on to NZ for three months also looking after horses for a family who show jump and hunt.  Her aim there is to hunt in NZ.  OMG they jump barbed wire I here!

Back on the farm, we've got Jayden arriving any day now, to live and work with us on our farm.  He's visiting the UK from NZ where he's used to milking 1800 Holstein cows!  Slightly different here with our 120 Ayrshires!  So Charlottes bedroom has had a make over to turn it less pink, for Jayden to live in.

Harry is off to Reaseheath College, to study Agriculture on a three year sandwich course.  His middle year will be out on a farm, gaining practical experience on someone else's farm.  So we need to pack up his stuff and move into halls this Sunday. 

So it's all change on Southfields Farm.

Mark and I will stay at home keeping the place going.  Cows are milking extremely well as the grass hasn't stopped growing this summer.  Currently in a hot period but rain is due over the weekend to freshen everything up. 

The In-Laws have finally got away with their caravan to Sunny Honey! (Hunstanton, Norfolk) for TWO months!!!  Hope the weather holds.

I'm typing this with freshly painted nail varnish.......  I need to get ready in a moment, as I've been invited to an Awards Dinner tonight with DairyCo.  I'm going to the Motorcyle Museum in Birmingham as a guest of DairyCo.  Unfortunately, Mark's not included!  Its evening dress, hence the nail varnish, and I'm going because Adam Hanson is the MC for the evening.  All I know is, the guests are all connected to the dairy industry, not just farmer producers, but industry leaders and alike.  (Not too sure why I'm invited, but in for a penny, in for a pound as they say).  Never one to miss an opportunity I'm off in half and hour.  Will update my blog later to let you know how I get on.

Jane's Teabread

Many visitors who come on Farm Walks to our farm, enjoy the Tea, Cakes and Stilton refreshments at the end of the visit.  Many more ask me for the Teabread recipe and it's so easy to make I usually make 5 or 6 at a time, so here it is!

Jane's Teabread

10oz/275g    mixed dried fruit
6oz/175g      soft brown sugar
1/2pt/300ml tea
10oz/275g    self-raising flour
1                   egg

In a mixing bowl, mix together the dried fruits and sugar.  Pour on the tea, cover and allow to stand for 4-5 hours or overnight.  After soaking, beat in the flour and beaten egg.  Stir to mix well.  Grease a 2lb/1kg loaf tin well and line the base with greaseproof paper.  Put in the cake mixture and level the top.  Place in a hot oven (its an Aga recipe so don't know how hot it needs to be - trial and error?) for 45 mins or until its golden brown, cooked in the middle when tested with a skewer!

When cold, slice and I serve buttered.  It makes an old fashioned favourite very enjoyable and goes down a treat with a cup of tea.

Big Birthday Month and Peak Milk Production

Three out of four members of my family have had their birthdays this month.  We begin on the 7th with Mark's (who had a new number plate for the Golf with "Moo" on it).  Then its Charlotte's on the 12th (who whizzed off to Majorca this year) and then finally mine on the 21st.  I got my favourite perfume from Charlotte, a new camera from Mark and a "grunt" from Harry!  Not to forget that Beattie had her 1st birthday on 24th - now she's all grown up, we've moved her into a dog bed rather than the cage, in the back kitchen.

As it's the last day of July today, we've been calculating our milk yield for the month and it's the best ever on this farm, ever, ever!  Looking at a production of just over 80,000 litres of high protein milk, just for July!  It's been phenomenal grass growing weather throughout July.  Firstly the hot dry spell, then just when the grass needed a drink, the thunderstorms sparked off the rain clouds.  Lovely warm rain at just the right time.  Long may the sunshine, warmth and rain last through August and September, when this farm usually runs short of grass and dries up.  Our grass seeds have proved invaluable in producting milk this year and now plan to re-drill another field this Autumn so its got the winter to establish.  Long Clawson Dairies what milk at this time of year as they make plenty of Stilton Cheese now which will be ready for the Christmas market come December.  Also the price they pay for the milk goes up in July, August and September to encourage us to produce it now.  Happy farmers at the moment!

Each Friday,  Beattie and I walk the farm to measure the grass growth for that week.  It's been a useful exercise for me and Beattie, not only for the excerise but for evaluating which fields are growing faster than others and which fields the cows like to graze.  Hopefully, 2013 is the turning point in this farms profitability and thats what keeps us going!

Also, we've been busy with hosting Farm Walks to groups of WI's or U3As this month.  It's always different each time a group visits, asking similar but different questions which I enjoy explaining the workings of a dairy farm.  My hope is the visitors go home more informed and able to educate members of their family or friends to the reality of running a typical British dairy farm. 

Alas today, Arla Dairies (processing plant for liquid milk) at Ashby de la Zouch has announced it's closing its factory next April.  A real blow to the industry as they relocate their liquid milk processing to a brand new factory nearer London!  370 jobs lost but the Leicestershire and Derbyshire farmers milk will still be collected and driven futher down the M1 to the new site.  It was on East Midlands Today this evening, interviewing farmers who are in shock of the news.

Meanwhile, at Long Clawson Dairies, they announced proudly a win at the Nantwich Cheese Fair with their new cheese Claxton Smooth Blue.  Claxton is the old English word for Clawson and the Smooth Blue, a kind of spreadable Stilton.  It's yummy, try it!