How Did We Cope With The Driest Summer Ever?

the lambs enjoying the grass, kept in by our hedgelaying we did earlier this year. you can also duck and chicken houses in the background.

I’ll start by saying I hate moaning farmers, so we will start with some positives. This summer has been the easiest going we have ever had in terms of getting things done on time, the crops came in early and dry, we didn’t have to watch the weather forecast like hawks and my sun hat has had the busiest year of its life! However, the driest July on record has made life more difficult for some aspects of the farm. The lambs really start to grow quick, eating more and more grass which normally isn’t a problem. This year due to the extreme heat we’ve been having the grass didn’t really grow at all in July or August, meaning we had to use some of our winter feed supply. This winter we also planted around 300 Christmas trees (which can be bought in our shop!). The dry spring and summer meant that no matter how much time we spent watering them, their young root systems weren’t able to take up enough water and we have lost half of this years trees. Lets hope for better next year!

Watering the Christmas trees hiding from from the sun under the weeds while also keeping myself cool

Our free range bronze turkeys outside exploring at 5 weeks old

Our turkeys arrived in July at just one day old. The warm summer meant that the heat lamps we use to keep them warm when they are small weren’t needed a lot of the time. After a few weeks under heat lamps the free range turkeys have been let outside to forage and explore, hopefully with the recent rain they might also get some grass to eat too! At this time of year there are plenty of bugs around for the birds to eat and the long warm days mean they love nothing more than roaming outside.

A field of our winter wheat being harvested. This will be sold to make bread with.

On top of the rush of preparing for turkeys arrival, we have been busy harvesting our crops. We finished combining our wheat and linseed on the 1st of August, by far the earliest we have ever finished on this farm. Luckily we had heavy rain in late may which meant our yields were about what we expect. Other farmers in other parts of the country haven’t been so lucky.

In the hot weather the staff have all been keeping cool whichever way possible, which for Bob means a dip in the water trough whenever he sees one, as herding sheep in the heat is hard work!

Farming is a cycle that never ends, and so as the nights start drawing in we turn to planning and planting next years crops, the arrival the Christmas cockerels and much more.