Blog – Page 7 – Small Plot, Big Ideas

Another day, another litter of Tamworths

Despite my best efforts with the calculations from the date of the AI, in the end Esther decided to hold on to her latest litter for an extra day or so. Past experience with her litters seemed to show that she was fairly reliable at 113 days but maybe she lost count this time!

After spending nearly the whole night with Esther on the Monday, I gave up waiting and went to bed around 5am for a couple of hours of sleep. She had been exhibiting all the usual signs for imminent farrowing – nesting with the bedding straw, restlessness etc – but apparently decided the time wasn’t right.

Even after a few years of breeding pigs I still can’t quite bring myself to leave the sows alone to get on with it themselves. There’s always a nagging thought in my mind that if someone is around then any complications that happen can get dealt with swiftly.

Through the morning on Tuesday we checked her roughly every hour or so until eventually she started delivering them at around 10am. Luckily we already had everything ready such as handy cloths, an iodine spray and even everything needed for helping any slightly weaker piglets

In the end, she produced a litter of 10 healthy piglets which is well above the average for the Tamworth breed. Sadly there were another 4 piglets either born dead or beyond saving but perhaps that’s for the best because 10 piglets are already quite demanding and so more would have been a greater strain on Esther.

There were a couple of piglets that were born alive but a little weak so they were immediately cleaned up and placed into the warming bag until they showed more signs of life. This is just a simple combination of a hot water bottle wrapped in a towel in the bottom of an insulated freezer bag but it really does work wonders.

With this litter Esther has proved to be an even better mother than before and all 10 are feeding well. There was a little variation in sizes of the piglets at birth but even the smaller ones are doing well and able to fight their way on to a teat when needed. As time goes on any size differences will usually even out but we’ll certainly be keeping an eye on the smaller ones as they develop.

Even a few days after all the excitement of the farrowing, I still find myself stopping off at their shed to have a look and check on them. If I’m quiet I can even sneak into the shed while they’re all sleeping and grab a picture like this:

Finding some time for the produce

It’s never easy combining a full-time job with the various smallholding tasks but it’s particularly difficult at this time of year when everything is growing like mad and providing edible produce. Thankfully I haven’t bothered to mention the courgettes this year because the blog readers would be as sick of them as we are at the moment!

For some reason, this year our redcurrants have been ignored by the wildlife so we actually managed to get a half decent crop from the 2 bushes. This was our first ever crop of redcurrants because in the past I’ve left them as a sacrificial crop so that the blackcurrants didn’t get taken.

A quick first attempt at a redcurrant cordial proved to be very successful with some of them but the rest have been frozen and will be dealt with when there is more time available.

It’s now the turn of the blackcurrants to be harvested and they’ll also end up in the freezer for now but I’d rather that than lose them completely. Next year may be even better as I took 5 or 6 cuttings when pruning the blackcurrants and it looks like most if not all of them have taken very well.

And as an extra bonus for this summer, there is even a (very small) harvest to come from the blueberry bush which had been considered as a completely lost cause last year. It was transplanted in the spring and given some TLC which appears to have done the trick

All I need now is a recipe that uses only 3 blueberries…

Better late than never, a hay update

Although it was some time ago now, I never did manage to put anything on here about the hay making this year. I won’t even both coming up with any excuses, there just aren’t enough hours in the day at the moment I guess.

Given that the weather so far this summer has been hot and dry, it’s no surprise that hay making went without a hitch in the end. The first week of July was considered to be as good as any time particularly since the dry weather would mean poorer quality hay if left for too much longer.

Hay cut and baled, just waiting to be brought in

The field was cut on the Monday, turned a number of times over the next couple of days and then baled by the Wednesday evening. Our neighbour has the right equipment so we’re happy to pay him for the work and all this happened while I was away for business.

Once I returned though, there was no avoiding the fact that the hay bales needed to be brought into the barn. Luckily the lack of rain this year meant that I could take a couple of days over the task without any risk to the hay while it sat in the field.

This year we got around 150 bales in total which is considerably down on the yield from the same field last year. This is taken from a roughly 4 acre field but only 3 acres of it was considered good enough to cut due to rushes and nettles around the edges.

As a result we’ll need to buy in extra feed for the cattle over this coming winter but that’s quite a common situation for many people this year. Hopefully we can get our winter feed sorted out before any mad rush pushes the prices up too far though.

The field is slowly starting to recover now and, if I’m honest, we could do with some rain soon but I know you have to be careful what you wish for sometimes!

Another Dexter bull calf – the mighty Quinn

Nellie, our second Dexter calved successfully overnight last week and was also 2 days after my prediction based on the bulls interest last year. Any illusion of accuracy with this on my part is more by luck than judgement if I’m completely honest.

The result was another bull calf (our second this year) that we have named Quinn based on a rather convoluted and unnecessary method for calf naming using the next letters in the alphabet starting from the mothers initial.

Since she has been with us, Nellie has produced Oscar, Primrose and now (the mighty) Quinn. It wasn’t too easy having to work with the “Q” initial but in the end I’m happy with it and the name seems to suit him.

It seemed a good idea at the time since the names would always start with different letters – for example, Daisy has given us Elvis, Frank and now Garry. However, this year we expect Nellie, Daisy and Primrose to all be served by the bull so if we stick with the plan my “Q” dilemma will return next year when Primrose has her first calf!

As for the earlier calving by Daisy this was all completely unaided and apparently free of any complications although we’ve been a bit concerned about actually seeing the new calf suckling on the mother.

This is mostly for our peace of mind because the little guy is obviously doing fine so he must be getting milk, he just never does it when we’re around in the field. Maybe he’s a little shy…

Growing update – success and setbacks

While reviewing the older blog posts in preparation for the recent blog update covering our first 5 years on the smallholding, I realised that the livestock still take up a much larger part of our work than was originally expected. I’d even noted this in a blog post last summer but somehow I’d never managed to deal with this imbalance.

Originally I had expected that growing fruit and vegetables would be an equal part of the work involved and hadn’t thought there’d be quite such a focus on animals. Obviously that is just the result of the decisions taken over time and these were all based on the options available at the time so I can see how we’ve ended up in the current situation.

In an attempt to rectify the balance a little on the blog, here is a quick update on the successes or otherwise with fruit/vegetables for this year (so far)…

Soft Fruit and Top Fruit

While the blackcurrants have been a roaring success, the red currants have usually taken the role of a sacrificial crop. We never lose many blackcurrants to the birds but the redcurrants are always picked clean. I think that this year I’ll make a greater effort to properly net the bushes in the hope that we can at least try some of our own redcurrants.

The fruit trees (apple, plum, pear) continue to make good progress but, during the bad snowfall in March, things must have been tough for the local wildlife. As a result the bark was stripped from most of our fruit trees and I’ve kept my fingers crossed since then in the hope that they’ll pull through.

Apple blossom - Spring 2018 — Apple blossom – Spring 2018

Autumn onions

I left it a bit late last autumn when planting out my red onion sets but despite my failings there is still a decent enough showing in that raised bed. With any luck we should have a usable crop and it’s been a good lesson to learn about the proper planting times for crops going into the ground in autumn

Lambs and seeds

Continuing the general theme of reporting minor disasters, one batch of seed sowing suffered quite badly with an attack of lamb hooves. The “little darlings” pushed their way out an enclosure and over the relatively soft rabbit protection I had in place.

Having just sown some rows of seeds only a few days earlier, I was less than impressed and I plan to use the whole episode to help me get over the difficulties of sending them off to slaughter in due course.

As can be seen in the picture below, there were a few gaps in the rows where carrots and lettuce should be but I’ve now re-seeded them and hopefully we can still make use of the space.

Success comes at a price

To end on a high note, after a couple of failed years trying to grow courgettes, I have finally managed to raise some that didn’t die within a week or so of being planted out. Unfortunately I can already predict the likely outcome when they start producing because I always plant too many and never learn that lesson!

Luckily we quite like courgettes and if necessary can probably find someone who’ll take any spares but if all else fails then the excess can easily go to the pigs and chickens

Looking back over our first 5 years as smallholders

Having reached the 5th anniversary of our move from suburbia to a North Pennines smallholding, it’s clearly a good time to review the current situation and take stock of our progress so far. Not least of which is where did all those years go!

The first task for me was to look back at my older blog posts from previous anniversaries and they were surprisingly informative. A little naive in places perhaps but that’s to be expected with hindsight and I’m sure that some of my more recent updates will look much same when I review them in the future.

Step by step

Apparently after just one week in our new 15 acre home we were already thinking of options and making plans. However reading that post though again now, some aspects don’t match the actual events so that’s a good illustration of how plans will change as you go along!

The one constant from our initial arrival is the collection of white chickens (breed uncertain) that we agreed to keep on from the previous owners. Although the cockerel has long since gone, the remaining hens still occasionally disappear off in random places to sit on some eggs until we can track them down.

The 2nd anniversary was marked by the dramatic events when the Dexter cattle made their big entrance before eventually settling down. At the time a real low point for me but now I’m not sure I would want to be without the Dexters plus the beef is absolutely amazing!

Around this same time, we also decided to convert one of the stone barns into a 2 bed self catering holiday let and this has turned out to be very popular. There’s a bit more work involved in running this than we might have original expected but it’s still very rewarding and we’ve had a constant stream of lovely guests staying.

By the 3 year smallholding anniversary it was becoming clear that we were doing more with livestock than I’d originally anticipated. Along with the obligatory chickens for eggs, we also had 2 Tamworth sows for breeding plus the Dexter cattle were happily calving unaided each year.

Now that the 5 year mark is here you can tell we’re getting more confident or perhaps that should be over-confident.

Despite our carefully thought out plans for managing the workload, we’ve decided to try keeping a few orphan lambs this year but at least these are just for meat with no intention for long-term breeding. This approach was certainly underlined for me when they decided to invade my raised beds and caused all sorts of havoc.

In general this is a nice way to try keeping a different type of animal for a few months but it’s not cheap with milk/feed costs and I’m still not convinced that I’d keep any sheep as a longer term activity.

Assessing our progress

It’s been a huge learning experience and immensely enjoyable most of the time with just the occasional negative moments. Even during the bad times though, I only need to take a wander around our fields and woods or just sit with the animals for a while.

This whole adventure has only been made possible through the help of our neighbours and the many new friends we’ve made since we started this journey. I’d be the first to admit that without that help and support we would not be where we are today.

There are always difficulties associated with having a full-time job along side running a smallholding but that’s not impossible, it’s only hard work and a desire to live that life. The subject of time management is always uppermost in my mind but cutting corners to fit things in would not always suit me You just have to plan out the workload for the time available and keep on going…

Another successful calving for the Dexters

In the end my rough calculations weren’t too far off and Daisy eventually calved at about 4pm last Saturday afternoon. We had kept a close eye on her and quite by chance went down to their field just to have a check during the afternoon.

When we got there we could just see the tips of 2 little hooves protruding so we knew that we’d timed the visit perfectly. It was just a question of waiting a few more minutes and then I got to see my first calving having missed others in previous years.

Very calmly she wandered over to a quiet corner and laid down. She was apparently oblivious to the fact that she’d picked the area with quite a few stinging nettles but maybe that was deliberate to keep me away!

The result was a healthy looking bull calf that we will be calling Garry. There’s no special reason for the name other than we wanted it to start with a “G” but after a day or so we decided he looks like a Garry so that’s settled.

The rest of the herd gathered around to take a look and to admire the newborn. However Daisy was always on hand to tell them to back off if they got too close.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed that, like the two previous calves from Daisy, with any luck Garry will turn out to be naturally polled (no horns). That would certainly mean one less job for us over the coming weeks.

After all the excitement, it was great to see the newborn up on his feet in no time and suckling well on his mother

Finishing last years hay and preparing for calving

By the end of April our small herd of Dexter cattle had managed to eat all the hay that we made late last summer. Over the last couple of weeks there has been some carefully planned movements between their winter fields because we had a family wedding lined up for the main meadows.

While they may have made an interesting addition to the wedding party, they don’t mix well with wedding guests so they were kept well away until after the event. Luckily we had some wooded areas with good grazing which they could move into temporarily.

We had originally stored around 380 small square bales of hay and at the time I was sure that it would last all the way through winter. However the tough snowy period through March meant that we got through our supply more quickly than expected.

In the end, we asked a neighbour to bring us just one large round bale of silage with his tractor so we could feed them through the last week or two and that did the job nicely. Yet another example where friends and neighbours can make all the difference so we’re always very appreciative of the help.

Based on notes I made when the bull was here last summer, I believe that Daisy will be the first to calve, perhaps even later this week. After that I’m hoping that Nellie will calve about 2-3 weeks later but this is all very approximate.

We’ll just have to let nature take its course and wait until they’re ready to produce. It’s times like this when we appreciate the fact that Dexters are an easy calving breed and they can be left to sort themselves out. We shouldn’t need to interfere but we’ll be watching closely just in case.

Once the wedding party clean-up had been completed last weekend, it was a simple matter of walking the cattle down to their new home. As usual they were more than happy to follow a bucket and since it was a hot day they weren’t in the mood for any rushing about.

A gentle afternoon stroll with the Dexters

Lamb update – 2 weeks in

Just over 2 weeks into our first attempts with keeping sheep and so far they’ve lived up to my perception that this is a fairly high-maintenance animal. I’ve tried to keep an open mind on the subject but with 2 lambs suffering from health problems in just 2 weeks it’s not been easy.

There has been slow progress with No. 9 (aka Limpy) and he still doesn’t put much weight on his left front leg. After a check from the vet last week then some further care and attention over the last few days he seems to be improving – just very slowly.

He’s always pleased to see me though but that might be because he knows that I’ll protect him from the chaos of the other 8 lambs while he feeds from the semi-automatic feeder. Life can be tough when you’re the smallest of the bunch and there’s a rush on at the food.

On a brighter note, Limpy was the first one to show any interest in our Dexter cattle and even went over to see them for a chat through the gate. I’m not sure who was more surprised by the meeting but they seemed to get on okay despite the size difference.

The most recent medical issue for the lambs was a swollen eye on No. 3 (aka Pus-Eye) who was also checked by the vet just to be on the safe side. As this is our first time keeping lambs it seems wise to get good advice when we’re not sure of something even though it’s not the most cost-effective way to raise livestock.

As you might expect this turned out to be a fairly simple infection with lots of pus (hence the name) and now that it has been treated everything is starting heal very nicely.

We’ve now become fairly well practised in administering injections on the lambs which at first was a little like trying to nail jelly to the ceiling. We soon got to grips with the best ways that worked for us and I realised that this is the first time we have ever needed to use antibiotics on any of our livestock – our pigs and cattle are apparently much more hardy and healthy animals

Now that the lambs are around 3 weeks old and we’re a little more used to keeping them, I can see some of the endearing qualities and the playful character traits. They are quite happy just running and jumping around like a 4-year-old at the playground and the way they tug at your trousers like a toddler seeking attention is quite funny … but only for the first few times!

However all of this cute lamb behaviour is not so entertaining when it starts to threaten my raised vegetable beds which are just next door to their temporary outdoor run. Some emergency repairs were needed to the small low section of fencing after a number of the lambs decided to lean on and found that it collapsed.

Despite all the various troubles and uncertainty in just the first 2 weeks, I’m already aware that there’s a certain attachment developing and it’s already quite likely we’d try this again next year. At least that would give us more experience of the work involved and who knows, the next batch might not have any health issues at all – although I certainly doubt that

New arrivals and a new species

In recent months we have spent many hours telling ourselves that we had more than enough to keep us busy here. The pigs, cattle, chickens and our 2 bedroom self catering holiday let (plus my day job) are keeping us busy enough, not to mention the 3 cats making a mess of the house!

We had even developed the mantra “no more species” as a reminder in case we wavered at any point.

Somehow this careful thought all fell by the wayside and we have now taken on some orphan lambs from a neighbouring sheep farmer. This is despite my belief that sheep are too much like hard work and generally seem to be looking for a new way to die.

The idea was to raise a few orphan lambs through the spring and summer months so that we can find out what it’s like keeping sheep without much of the hard work like shearing or lambing – and hopefully none of the various ailments that sheep seem to get on a regular basis.

Only getting 8 so why is there a number 9?

It was originally supposed to be just 8 lambs but when we went to collect them my better half had already picked out 10 as being suitable – presumably this was payback for my “mistake” when allowed out to buy pigs on my own a few years ago.

The deciding factor for me was that everyone else in this area keeps sheep so I should really try it myself to see what’s involved. Of course, it’ll be nice to have some home-grown lamb at the end of it as well!

We currently have 9 lambs penned in a barn with a semi-automatic feeder setup which will mean that we don’t need to bottle feed them at regular intervals. Number 10 was not quite strong enough yet so he’ll turn up later on. I’m just hoping that he doesn’t bring a couple more friends with him.

So far so good and they’ve managed to survive over 24 hours in the hands of two completely inexperienced beginners. Luckily the neighbour is fairly close by and will be able to help with some advice or assistance if that becomes necessary.