Thursday 11 September 2008 at Longnor Village Hall, 7.30 pm
The talk is on Successful Fruit Growing and there’s a mystery prize draw!

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Our very grateful thanks go to the Shropshire Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Partnership for their generous sponsorship of this September issue.

The monthly meetings (on the second Thursday of the month) for the remainder of 2008 will be:

• Thursday 9 Oct – John Hughes from the Shropshire Wildlife Trust on fungi
• Thursday 13 Nov – Nicola Fitter on horses
• Thursday 11 Dec – Quiz and bring-and-share meal

In addition the following social events are being arranged:

• Saturday 20 September – “Stone Soup” supper.
• Early December – an evening Christmas meal (details to follow).

The message from Defra is loud and clear – vaccinate your animals or risk the havoc which bluetongue has wreaked in France this year.

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Hybu Cig Cymru - Meat Promotion Wales produces a wide range of very useful booklets on many aspects of keeping sheep and cattle.

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Ferrets are not wild animals but domesticated descendants
of the wild polecat, members of the Mustelidae family of animals that include the stoat, weasel, otter and badger.

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• Chickens absorb vitamin-D through their combs from sunshine.
• The longest recorded flight of a chicken is thirteen seconds.
• The average canary has about 2,200 feathers.
• The topknot that some quails have is called a hmuh.
• The bones of a pigeon weigh less than its feathers.
• A group of geese on the ground is gaggle, a group of geese in the air is skein.
• A group of larks is called an exaltation, a group of ravens a murder and a group of owls a parliament.
• If birds were sent into space they would soon die, they need gravity to swallow.

Source: www.triviaplaying.com

After a gap of several years not being represented at any local agricultural show, it was decided that it was about time that we waved the flag again around the county, on behalf of The Shropshire Smallholders Group. We purchased a gazebo, a table and brought out the banners from previous forays onto show grounds, so off we went to Bishops Castle Show to set up for the day.

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On the evening of Thursday 14 August,a group of members visited Bull Farm near Kenley.

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The Older Cattle Disposal Scheme (OCDS), which was introduced in January 2006, ends on 31 December this year.

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