Thursday 10 April 2008 at Longnor Village Hall, 7.30 pm

Speaker: Des Walker of Box Fresh Organics will talk on starting and running an organic business. Read the rest of this entry »

• Thursday 8 May – Wormeries and composting by Richard Fishbourne
• Thursday 12 June – Honey and bee-keeping by Roy Howells

Meetings at Longnor resume after the summer break, with:

Thursday 11 September - Successful Fruit Growing by Philip Aubrey

Planned meetings (Second Thursday of each month) for the remainder of 2008 include talks on horses and fungi and a quiz.

Over the summer period the following visits are being arranged:

• Thursday 10 July - a visit to Attingham Park followed by a pub meal.
• Thursday 14 Aug - an evening visit to Bull Farm, Kenley comprising a walk of approximately 1 mile looking mainly at butterflies and possibly fossils.

Saturday 17 May

The Royal Welsh Smallholder and Garden Festival 2008 at Builth Wells incorporating The Festival of Dance.

We are organising advance tickets for this event so you won’t need to queue at the gates! Read the rest of this entry »

Agreement reached on new rules covering the identification of equidae

EU member states have reached agreement on a new European regulation that will revise existing equine identification [horse passport] legislation. The main new requirement is the compulsory microchipping of foals born after 1 July 2009. Read the rest of this entry »

Planning turn out of lambs and ewes is essential to limit the effects worms have on lamb performance.
The greatest risk to lambs comes from nematodirus. Cold weather will help to limit the number of this species on the grass but this isn’t the case for other species and some of these could threaten young lambs grazing pastures which carried sheep last year. Read the rest of this entry »

Country Crafts by Mike Black

Working on and with the land there has, over generations, evolved skills and craftmanship associated with such vocations. Read the rest of this entry »

A neighbour recently remarked that many snowdrops are found on land very close to dwellings. This is certainly true down our lane where clumps of snowdrops appear on the verges near a house and then there are no more until the next house etc. We can’t explain why this should be so. The snowdrops’ natural habitat is woodland where the soil is humus-rich and slightly moisture-retentive. Has the nature of the soil got anything to do with it or is the explanation related to humans transplanting bulbs years ago? Read the rest of this entry »

Many people associate laminitis with fat ponies grazing on lush spring grass. However, it can occur in horses as well as ponies, and in thin animals as well as fat ones as well as at any time of the year. It can occur in hind feet as well as in front feet. The cause of it is not totally understood, although the following situations frequently precede an attack. The triggers may occur singly or in combination. Read the rest of this entry »

Dave Bates, who has judged vegetables and flowers for over thirty years, gave an amusing talk at our March meeting. He revealed some of the more bizarre techniques for growing show standard vegetables, including growing leeks in tubes and admitted that he did like eating some of the vegetables he grew.

Dave was also very honest about his wife’s frustrations. One year he presented her with 36 cauliflowers all at once! I suspect most group members are more interested in growing edible vegetables but the secrets of the show table were fascinating!

Bluetongue vaccination has caused much debate in recent months and Defra has announced that vaccination will be on a voluntary basis despite this strategy failing to win EU approval. Voluntary vaccination means that vets will be able to supply the vaccine to livestock owners, whereas under compulsory vaccination rules and to qualify for EU subsidies only government vets would be allowed to carry out the injections. Limiting the number of people who can carry out the injections would have seriously delayed the programme.

Vaccine is likely to be available from May 2008 but only within the Protection Zone. However, it is important that, if you wish to protect your animals against Bluetongue as soon as the vaccine is available in this part of the country, you register with your veterinary practice now.

The vaccine should cost between 55p and 98p a dose depending on the quantity ordered but it will be up to individual veterinary practices to set the price to charge their clients. It is expected that sheep will require a single dose and cattle two doses 28 days apart but this is still subject to Veterinary Medicines Directorate approval. There could be further administrative costs involved as is likely that there will be some requirement for evidence that the vaccine has been used – this could be as simple as the return of empty vaccine containers to veterinary practices together with a signed declaration.

Sources: Farmers Weekly and Defra.