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!

Tennis Elbow, Housemaids Knee and Home Alone

After watching the success of Andy Murray last week, I've come out with sympathy pains in my right elbow!  Or it could be down to the amount of buckets of milk I'm carrying from the parlour to the baby calves twice a day.  Boy, have we had some stonking Herefords?  They are twice the size of a newborn Ayrshire and drink SO much milk.  The bigger, brighter ones are jumping pens and even jumping out into the barn, but luckily, won't go outside the building as they know its "scary" out there.  Last night, two jumped out and were found this morning asleep in between the pens, with their mates.  I've got 15 babies and 10 weaners to feed twice a day and its hot so they're all getting water too.  More buckets to carry!  Think I'm going to rename my tennis elbow, Milkmaids Elbow!

Mother-in-law, has just had a knee replacement.  The old one is worn out after 85 years so they've replaced the Housemaids Knee.  She's been home a week now and walking very well with the crutches around the house and garden daily.  Yesterday, she had the village Doctor visit because it was still very swollen.  She sent us to LRI to the DVT clinic to get it check out.  So I downed my paint brush and changed to take her.  Three hours later, no news but another scan on her leg later in the week.  And still got some more painting to do in the stables.

Home alone for three days as both Charlotte and Harry are on holiday with my sister, Susan and her family in Majorca (alright for some - but I've got equally great weather for sunbathing if I had time too).  Mark has gone to Devon (another holiday spot) for a dairyman's tour of other dairy farms with other dairy farmers!  I'd loved to have gone too but someone's got to stay at home and hold the fort.

Being "Home Alone" (although I've got Beattie the dog 24/7) is great but so much to do.  Eleven loads of washing, cleaned the kitchen floor, painted four stables, poo picked the paddock, lunged both horses every day, (not to mention feeding and bedding all my calves)and tomorrow attending a Farmers Meeting (as Marks not here) to discuss suppliers for the farm and do the weekly shop down Tescos for Mum-in-Law and ourselves!  However, when I speak to people telling them all my family are away, the reply is "how nice, now you can do whatever you want?"  Ha Ha. I wish!

Next job to do, is try and sell my beloved horsebox lorry.  It's the sensible thing to do.  With Charlotte travelling this winter and Harry away at College, I can't see me hunting as there's so much to do on the farm.  So it's got to go after four years of fabulous family filled adventures in it.

Looking at our staffing problem, I have offered to be a host family for an overseas trainee.  We've made contact with a NZ 21 year old who is from a 500 cow dairy unit in South Island NZ.  As I've got a bedroom spare this winter, I thought this could be the answer.  Fingers crossed!