On the Farm
We’re farmers first … because we’re still active on the land and with animals, we will always have quality, local food production at heart. Here’s a little of what what else we do outside of the Farmshop.
Scottish Whiskey
8th August
Cutting some Barley for Malting next to the Farm Shop tonight!
This is on a contract with the maltsters Crisp and will go to make Whiskey in Scotland!
Rape Seed Oil
21st July
Harvest 2023 has begun on the farm, with some of the Oil Seed Rape.
It’s been tough going trying to get what we can in between the showers! Can we get some of that sun that’s been forecast now please?
Beet Drilling
20th April
Good to get a load of the beet drilling done before the rain yesterday!
We use the Horizon Agriculture (formerly slyagri) Strip Cat II to cultivate the rows first and then with the help from our friends, Park Farm – Thorney, precision drill the seed using GPS and the Varderstad tempo.
The small blue ball bearings you can see in the last pic are the seeds.
Taking care of newborn lambs
18th April
It’s great to see the sun shining today!
The first few sheep & lambs are now outside enjoying the grass.
The pregnant ewes spend the daytime outside and walk into the lambing shed each evening to be fed and monitored overnight.
Once they’ve had their lambs, they spend 1 or 2 days in individual pens so that they can bond with their lambs and we can make sure they are all healthy too!
After this they spend 1 or 2 days in a larger pen, ‘the crèche’, with other ewes & lambs before going out to grass!
Lambing has officially begun at Moor Farm
11th April
2 healthy sets of twins born outside in the miserable rain this afternoon but now snuggled up inside keeping warm and dry
Twin Kids Born
7th April
This morning we had twin kids born – the first of the year! Next week the sheep will start lambing too.
So keep an eye out for more updates!
We’ve had a busy month on the farm!
1st March
More calves born, 3 litters of piglets born and some lovely weather for spring cultivations & drilling
British Sugar
February
Finally the sugar beet has all been harvested!!
Due to the extended period of cold weather in December, the harvest has been later than usual as the crop needed time to recover from serious frost damage.
Unfortunately for many farmers this year, their sugar beet has been rejected by the factory due to the frost damage which makes the sugar beet ‘mushy’ and therefore unable to be processed into sugar.
Thankfully, all of our crop has now made it safely to the sugar beet factory in Wissington, Kings Lynn, transported by PJ Thory.
Sugar beet factories are open from the end of September until February / March which is when all of the sugar beet is lifted.
This must supply British Sugar with enough sugar to store and supply the food industry, and consumers, for the rest of the year. You will know our sugar as Silver Spoon!
As Silver Spoon sugar only travels from Newborough to Kings Lynn, it has very low food miles which makes it much better for the environment than other sugar brands produced abroad from cane sugar.
Sheep Pregnancy Scanning
February
Last week we pregnancy scanned our sheep.
This helps us at lambing time as we can feed them accordingly and also we will know what to expect from each sheep.
They each have a coloured dot on their side relating to how many lambs they are carrying .
We had some great results!
8 x singles (red)
70 x twins (white)
8 x triplets (blue)
2 not in lamb
So, as you’re passing our fields and see coloured dots on the sheep, this is what it means.