Thursday 13 March 2008 at Longnor Village Hall, 7.30 pm

Our guest speaker is Dave Bates who will be giving an illustrated talk on the general growing and showing of vegetables. Dave has been a judge of vegetables and flowers at all levels of shows for over thirty years and is one of the few qualified National Dahlia Society judges in the Midlands. He has been writing for Garden News for several years and he has lectured all over the country.

The evening will conclude, as usual, with a 2-course supper during which you can get to know fellow members and discuss common interests.

There is a charge for supper of just £3.50 per person and guests pay an additional entrance fee of £1 and visitors £3. In order to assist our kind volunteers who cook the meals, please ensure that you book your supper(s) by the evening of Sunday, 9 March at the latest. Bookings made after that date will be taken for the talk only. Contact Eric and Jean Huff by telephone 01694 723706, email ssg@plush-hill.co.uk or by dropping a line to them at Plush Hill, All Stretton, Shropshire, SY6 6JP.

Reminder: If you have not yet renewed your subscription for 2008 please send a cheque, made payable to SSG, to Eric and Jean Huff, Plush Hill, All Stretton, Shropshire, SY6 6JP. £15 per individual - £20 per holding. Thanks.

Thurs 10 April – Starting and running an organic business by Des Walker
Thurs 8 May – Wormeries and composting by Richard Fishbourne
Thurs 12 June – Honey and bee-keeping by Roy Howells
Meetings at Longnor resume for the remainder of 2008, after the summer break, with the September meeting (SecondThursday of each month).

Planned talks include Fruit growing, Horses, Fungi and a Quiz.

Over the summer period the following visits are being arranged:

• Thurs 10 July - a visit to Attingham Park followed by a pub meal.
• Thurs 14 Aug - an evening visit to Bull Farm, Kenley.

Saturday 5 April Fordhall Farm, Tern Hill Road, Market Drayton, TF9 3PS
(meet at the Farm Shop at 3.00 pm)

A visit to this community-owned farm (SSG has a share) has been arranged followed by tea and cakes. The guided tour will last about one hour. The cost is £4.50 per person (including refreshments). Please let Joy Brightman know by Thursday 3 April if you are coming by telephoning her on 01694 751293 or dropping a line to her at High Park House, All Stretton, Church Stretton SY6 6LW.
Money will be collected on the day.

Saturday 17 May The Royal Welsh Smallholder and Garden Festival 2008, Builth Wells incorporating the Festival of Dance. We will, as last year, be arranging tickets for this event. Further details will be in the next newsletter.

The British Wool Marketing Board will run this course for us if we have a sufficient number of members who wish to attend.

The course comprises part theory (looking at causes, identification, treatment and prevention of foot problems) and part practical (learning how to trim feet). It is likely to be held on a Saturday in May or June and will cost £50 per person. If you are interested please contact Mel Gregory on 01588 640538, by email or by dropping a line to him at Hollybush Farm, Mardu, Clun SY7 8QG by Sunday 16 March 2008.

The following piece does not give detail as to how to trim a goat’s hooves as this can be found in good reference books. Rather it aims to highlight some practical issues which otherwise might be overlooked.
Lame goats do not move freely to forage and water and, thus, have lower feed intakes than goats with healthy hooves. This translates into less milk production, slower growth rates and even diminished conception rates. Lame billies will not actively seek out nannies in heat and may not breed even if they do mount. Many foot and leg problems in goats are caused by either a lack of trimming or improper trimming techniques. Read the rest of this entry »

Genevieve Tudor  - Meet Wattle and Daub, the Bandersnatches…

They’ve got big dark eyes and long thick eyelashes…and the most amazing patterned feathers.

When I saw Lezli’s duo I said “I want…”

Here’s a word of warning…don’t say “I want…” in front of John. Two days later he was on the phone (the one that was working).

“I’ve got your guinea fowl!”

“Oh. But I don’t know how to…?”

“Just like chickens”

“Where will they sleep?”

“They roost”We went to collect them. “Are they a pair?”

“We don’t know. We think they are.”

We now have 2 guinea fowl. Lavender, I think. They skitter round the garden, sound like rusty gates being opened under protest, shout louder than our cats and look like two little old men in housecoats. They wait for me in the morning to bring them a bit of corn and the male (?) does a little dance. Sometimes I do a little dance back.

They wander in and out of the neighbour’ gardens and Matt (the neighbour) has taken to opening a large umbrella at them till they back off for a while. Chucking a bit of gravel at them didn’t work – they thought it was corn! So far they’ve not decimated the garden. The chickens do that…
Great characters and excellent guard birds. Must get some more…shhhhh

We would welcome your contributions to this section of the newsletter. Your favourites could be, for example, particular vegetables, fruit or flowers you have grown, a reference book, a recipe, a piece of equipment or a breed of animal etc that you think would be of interest to other member smallholders.

Any contributions can be sent to the editors.

The current situation

By 22 February 2008 there were 81 confirmed premises affected by Bluetongue. The most recent cases were found as a result of pre-movement testing or tests on imports.

It has been announced that the current vector-free period will end at midnight on 15 March 2008. This decision is based on an assessment of meteorological data and historic vector (midge) trapping.

From 15 March, no animals will be permitted to move out of the Restricted Zone and movement restrictions will return to those which were in place before the vector-free period was declared on 20 December 2007.

The Restricted Zone, which comprises the Protection and the Surveillance Zones, has been extended to cover Cornwall and part of Wales (the Borough Council of Oswestry remains outside of the zone).

Defra has announced this in advance to minimise disruption and allow livestock keepers o make the necessary arrangements to prepare to move their animals.

Currently there are two different pre-movement tests - the ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) test and the PCR ( polymerase chain reaction) test. Which test is used depends on your vet/location. The ELISA test is run by the VLA (Veterinary Laboratories Agency) at Weybridge and detects antibodies to the virus.

This relies on the animal having had time to produce an immune response. This technology is simpler than the PCR test and it can be largely automated. The PCR test is run by IAH (Institute of Animal Health) at Pirbright and allows the rapid identification of Bluetongue viral nucleic acid in blood and other tissues of infected animals. The laboratory cost of a Bluetongue PCR test is £15 per sample tested and £2.95 for an ELISA test. The minimum test turnaround for both ELISA and PCR is four working days.

A similar severe disease of wild ruminants is caused by epizootic haemorrhagic disease virus (EHDV). EHD may occasionally cause clinical signs in cattle that appear to be similar to Bluetongue.

Sources: Defra and Farmers Weekly

2007 was the worst year for potato blight in 50 years. It is caused by the fungus phytophthora infestans: a major culprit in the 1845 Irish and 1846 Highland potato famines. The organism can, also, infect tomatoes and some other members of the Solanaceae family.

The fungal spores overwinter on infected tubers, particularly those that are left in the ground after the previous year’s harvest, in cull piles and in soil. Spores develop on the leaves, spreading through the crop when temperatures are above 10C (50°F) and humidity is over 75% for 2 days or more.

The early stages of blight can easily be missed and not all plants are affected at once. Symptoms include the appearance of dark blotches on leaf tips and plant stems. White mould will appear under the leaves in humid conditions and the whole plant may quickly collapse. Infected tubers develop grey or dark patches that are reddish brown beneath the skin, and quickly decay to a foul-smelling mush caused by the infestation of secondary soft bacterial rots. Seemingly healthy tubers may rot later when in store.

Prompt removal of infected foliage before the disease spreads to the tubers may save the crop.

Ridging is often used to reduce tuber contamination by blight. This involves piling soil or mulch around the stems of the potato plant where leaves are affected by blight meaning the fungus has farther to travel to get to the tuber.

The use of fungicides is ineffective once infection has occurred. Fungicides can only be used as a preventative method. Many of the fungicides are based on copper.

Potato varieties vary in their susceptibility to blight. Most early varieties are very vulnerable but early planting allows the crop to mature before blight starts (usually in July). Among the most susceptible are King Edward, Arran Comet, Arran Pilot, Epicure, Foremost, Golden Wonder, Home Guard, Kerr’s Pink, Majestic, Sharpe’s Express, and Ulster Chieftain.

Main crop varieties which are very slow to develop blight include Cara, Stirling, Teena, Torridon, Remarka and Romano. Some so-called resistant varieties can resist some strains of the blight and not others, so their performance may vary depending on which strains are around.

Resistance is achieved by genetic engineering, taking a resistance gene from the plant Solanum bulbocastanum and introducing it into the genome of cultivated varieties of the potato.

Sources: RHS, Wikipedia and Country Smallholding

Why not make your own origami box which can be used as a biodegradable plant pot for beans, squashes and anything which needs to be planted straight out without disturbing the roots too much?

If you start with a folded double sheet of tabloid sized newspaper the finished box will comprise four layers of newspaper, which is sufficient strength to make the model work as a plant pot, but not too thick that it doesn’t degrade in the soil.

Don’t use glossy paper, as you want it to rot down quickly and not leave metal residues from the coloured ink.

If you’re an experienced origamiist (is that a word?), you probably know a design that will work. If not, the web will come to your assistance. Here are a couple of sites with easy to follow instructions:

• Videojug
• Downsizer forum
  

While the pecking order in poultry includes males and females, the males tend to be more aggressive in the breeding season. Their aggression tends to be towards other males or those that are seen to be interfering with their flock or towards the unfortunate poultry keeper going out to feed them.

If breeding males are kept together, as they are with some flocks, it is necessary for them to have their own females as well as a considerable ranging area. This enables escape routes and territorial boundaries to be established. These may be invisible to human eyes, but not to the birds.

If different breeds are run together but are to be bred from as pure breeds, it will be necessary to separate the breeds and keep them apart for at least three weeks before taking eggs for incubation. This is because the sperm can remain viable in the oviduct for up to 21 days.

The main weapons of the cock are, of course, his long sharp spurs. They have no function in a breeding flock because the sides of the hen can be ripped during mating and they are best kept trimmed. The earlier this is done the better, because they harden quite quickly.

Regular trimming will control the growth and ensure that there is no sharp tip. With an older male, it is usually necessary to soften the spurs with vegetable oil over a period of several days and then just trim the tip. As the softening process continues, more can be trimmed back, but it is important not to cut too much at a time otherwise it will bleed. Aggressive males can be dangerous to small children who are, after all, nearer their level than adults, so they need to be confined securely. With adults, they tend to attack the legs so wearing a good pair of wellingtons is advisable. When about to attack, the cockerel has a similar pattern of behaviour to his pre-mating routine. He utters a rather strangled croak, takes a few sideways steps and then flies up, raking your legs with his spurs.

One defence is to emulate his behaviour by taking a few sideways steps yourself, stamping your feet and uttering a louder croak. Anyone watching you can be forgiven for thinking that you have taken temporary leave of your senses, but you can always explain that you are involved in a scientific experiment. They may believe you! Another tip is to press down on the back of the bully (male or female) to bring about a squatting position. This reinforces your position as leader of the flock. Throwing a bucket of water over the culprit, or using a water pistol, has been known to succeed (but do not do this in cold weather for humanitarian reasons).

Dealing successfully with aggression impresses upon the attacker that you are at the top of the pecking order. Once this is established, he will tend to give way.