Mel and Margaret’s Smallholding

2008 on Hollybush Farm

2008 was the third year on our smallholding and it brought many happy moments although where there is livestock there will, on occasions, be deadstock.

The year started with a very successful lambing period - 19 lambs from our 10 ewes. Some were first time lambers but presented no problems, but Hampshire (so-named because of her breed!) struggled yet again as her lamb had the typical wide-head of this breed.

Mel is much better at sorting out problems than I am but I only had to wake him once at 3am with: “Mr Midwife, Mr Midwife, you’re needed”.

The one set of triplets rebelled against us trying to supplement their feed with a bottle - but Masie coped and raised them all. Another of the ewes (Longnose) had had mastitis in a previous year and lost one quarter (or ½ to non-sheepy people) of her udder. Of course, she had twins. The milk from her good quarter was poor so we bottle fed both her twins although they were left with their mum - one thrived but was small, the other always looked hunched and uncomfortable and at 3 months gradually got weaker and weaker. This was the first lamb death that we had had to cope with. We have subsequently decided not to breed from Longnose again but it was a VERY difficult time when we took her to the abattoir as a cull ewe.

On a brighter note we have purchased our own Wiltshire horn ram, rather than borrowing one each year. He is a 2008 lamb and very precocious! A week after we brought him home we turned him from his smaller patch of grass, where we had started to get to know him and he us, into one of our larger fields. Next door were our neighbouring farmer’s ewes. Well, he got the scent of the ewes and somehow went through or over the fence on a visit. We couldn’t get anywhere near him so had to cajole the help of the farmer and his dog. I am sure that there will be a few horned lambs amongst their multitudes of Kerry Hills next spring - and they will be rather easy to spot!

Our Oxford sandy and black pigs have done us well. The two sows, Bertha and Blanche, have reared 42 piglets between them this year. But, of course, I mustn’t forget to mention Bob, the proud father. I have had great fun with the parents using a clicker to train them to stand by gates, do weaving races around acquired traffic cones and to search for balls hidden under cardboard boxes, etc! Well, it’s all in the excuse of making them more handleable when we need to move them around the fields or up to the sty for farrowing.Our ducks and chickens are thriving. Their numbers increased this year when we re-homed some ex-”free-range” chickens (which had been kept in large sheds and, probably, had never been out of doors) and 2 white Campbell ducks (which two SSG members spotted on Freecycle).

The rest of my life is taken up with fruit and vegetable growing and processing. Our fruit trees have certainly done well - at the start of the year I pruned them for the first time after going on the course arranged by SSG. This season was the first year with our polytunnel. I love working in it whilst the rain comes down outside. We have had great, early crops of strawberries, beans & peas from it and masses of tomatoes and chillies. I am looking forward to the asparagus harvest next year. Any surplus produce is sold through the Country Market either as fresh or as jams and chutneys.

Talking of rain - what a summer! We turn our largest field over to hay. This means no grazing on it from mid- May until after the hay is cut, usually mid July. This year it was the end of September. No summer, what about snow just over a month after we had made hay! Yes, snow was lying on 30 October - is this global warming or should I now say climate change, to be politically correct?

by Mel Gregory and Margaret Heritage