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Chawton Park Farm Diary
19 October 2008
As you can see the weather vane has been replaced, fully restored by Dad. The detail on it is fantastic, the local blacksmith over 70 years ago must have spent many hours crafting it. The roofers have at last finished re-tiling the cartshed and will soon put the gutters back on. This week has been very busy on the farm with 730 lambs going to Ashford market as stores and 31 deer going up to Yorkshire. It is always a nervous time when we have to load the deer, but as usual they behaved impeccably, calmly walking on to the lorry at five this morning. The driver says that they were so quiet he would hardly know they were on board. Another year in the life of the deer has started with the stags roaring away in the fields as the rut is underway.
12 October 2008
It has been an exceedingly busy summer which regrettably has meant I have not been able to keep the diary up to date, but I am back now. The lambing in May on the whole went very well with just a few very wet days. The deer behaved themselves during calving with only a couple needing any assistance. We had a wonderful two days with years 3,4, 5 and 6 from Four Marks School, the weather was great and the teachers and children really enjoyed their time here. Most of the summer was very wet, which made the grass grow, but the lambs do not like being wet all the time and so they have not grown quite as quickly as usual, although with the good weather at the moment they do seem to be catching up. The weather has not been good for the butterflies either and numbers have been considerably down on usual. The hedges are wonderfully full of berries which should help the birds; lets hope it does not mean we are going to have a hard winter, although I do like a cold period to kill off some of the bugs that can affect the livestock.
5th March 2008
From the picture, you can see that Andy has finished laying the hedge and he has made a very good job of it. You can also see how smart the roof on the old building is now looking. Lee is back working on the farm and he is very busy erecting new fences to keep the animals off the newly laid hedge and out of some of the woodland. He will soon start on a new collecting corral for the deer. A group of students from Sparsholt College visited this week to see what was involved in farming red deer, they had great fun investigating the handling systems. We have acquired a very unusual new species, a 'parakeet' has been spotted flying around the farm for the last few days, he is very colourful but most of the other birds are very wary of him.
19th February 2008
As I mentioned last time, the restoration work is coming on well, all the doors and windows are now fitted and just a few finishing touches need to be done. So the next phase has started, on the old granary with the rotten old floor being removed. This has revealed a few more joists needing replacing and we are now awaiting these in order to continue. Dad has finished the bridge over a ditch, so that we can now feed the deer behind the house, at the top of the field. Richard Hoare's team have been with their huge muck spreaders to spread the muck whilst the ground is still dry. On the wildlife side Andy has started laying a section of hedge that has been neglected for many years, when he has finished it will look very neat and will create another wildlife haven.
7th February 2008
As you can see, the first phase of the restoration is done and the buildings are starting to look as good as they would have done several hundred years ago when they were built. Since the photo was taken the gutters have been fitted and the doors will soon follow. I have been busy with Sandy going through all the ewes in order to sort out the ones that need to come back to the yards to recieve some extra feed. The lambs are fattening well and Helen is doing a great job marketing them through Lamb in a van . We hope to up date that website soon to show all the pubs where you can sample our lamb. Yesterday we were moving an old carpet in one of the barns and found 2 bats nesting in it, needless to say we have now left it where it was. We often see them flying around the courtyard at night but I have never seen them asleep before.
24th January 2008
Sorry it has been so long since I last wrote - an awful lot has happened recently. The best of which has been the fantastic response we have had from the local pubs to Lamb in a van, with everyone appreciating the great quality of the meat. The worst has been Helen breaking her wrist and so not being able to write or drive for 6 weeks - we must say thank you to everyone who is helping to try and keep things running smoothly. The lamb price has improved and 2 weeks ago our lambs were amongst the best at the market. You can see from the picture that we are now feeding the deer as the grass has finished for the winter. On the wildlife side, for those of you that visit the farm, you will probably have noticed the 3 buzzards in the fields next to the drive, stalking worms, an amazing site for such a large bird. The builders are getting on well with the old buildings and should have finnished the roof of the first barn next week.
19th December 2007
Another busy week - on Monday Derek took the last of the cull ewes at 5 in the morning and then in the afternoon he took 152 lambs to Ashford market. Although we got top price for their weights in 5 out of the 7 pens we still only averaged £37 a lamb; lets hope next year the price improves. On the wildlife side you can see that Kevin has put up 2 new owl boxes, lets hope the barn owls like them. I also saw 16 Lapwings feeding in one of the meadow fields, its been a long time since I have seen that many on the farm.
12th December 2007
At last we have launched "Lamb In a Van" It has taken many hard weeks of organising but thanks to Chris at Digiprint the web site is ready and looking great with some excellent photographs courtesy of EBLEX. Helen and the children are busy distributing fliers around all the local villages. The first 20 lambs have been selected and will be taken to the abattoir at Laverstoke Park tomorrow, where Nigel is doing a brilliant job getting this new abattoir running. On the farm at last it has stopped raining and although it is cold all the animals are definitely enjoying it more.
5th December 2007
Chris came up from Dorset today to shear the ewe lambs in the barn. We do this so that we can keep a closer eye on their condition during the winter and they stay nice and warm in their deep straw bedding. Sandy helped with the shearing while I started turning the rams out with the ewes. I managed to get the Lleyns out today and hopefully we will get the Charollais out tomorrow.
26th November 2007
Today the builders have started work on the old barns, which is being funded with a grant from Natural England. They are starting on the old Milking Parlour by stripping off the roof which had started to slip, and then replacing it with new battens and as many of the old tiles that can be saved. We will keep you informed of progress over the coming weeks.
17th November 2007
This week has seen all the many hours of work getting our electronic identification system to work and entering data, being put to really good use. After spending an evening on the computer studying the sheep records and selecting the best ewe lambs, it only took 2 hours to separate the 330 lambs we wanted from the 440 in the field using our electronic drafting system. Now the 330 ewe lambs are indoors for the winter, slowly munching their way through the hay we made in the summer.
10th November 2007
It has been a sad week in that we have had to shoot Rex one of our master stags. On Wednesday he got a section of fencing wrapped around his antlers and although we managed to cut the fence to enable him to walk around it was not possible to get it off his antlers. After much thought we came to the conclusion that we would have to shoot him. Blackmoor Game arranged for someone to come out and it was all over very quickly. We now have the task of scouring the country to find a new stag that can meet the high standards we have set ourselves. There will be more news on our search in the coming months. The picture is actually of Samson, who we still have, as I could not find one of Rex.
3rd November 2007
Autumn is here again, the leaves have turned golden and are starting to fall. The swallows have left for South Africa and the squirrels have buried the walnuts for their winter feed.
But there is still plenty happening on the farm. It has been a very difficult Autumn this year due to Foot and Mouth and Bluetongue restrictions (see links). We are in the process of setting up a box scheme so that we can market our lambs direct to the consumer, I hope to have more news on this in the coming weeks. The animals are all doing well.We have spent the week getting the sheep ready for the rams to go in, trimming the ewes feet and putting the thinner ewes on better grass to get them fatter for tupping. The stags are looking tired as the rut draws to an end.