Down On the Farm is a new occasional blog from Rose Dale.
Rose, Mike Heybrook's daughter, has taken over the running of Manor Farm in Chearsley with a focus on sustainable farming.
Wildflowers
The wildflower meadows are marvellous now, standing tall with the early summer flowers. The meadow is alive with insects and is a valuable resource for pollinators. Each year, it is mown around late July and the grass is removed to reduce the soil’s fertility. A low-fertility soil reduces the vigour of the grasses and, therefore, actually provides better conditions for the wildflowers that grow amongst the grass. Traditional hay meadows were treated like this for decades and this is why they are such amazing matrixes of wildflowers, with up to 40 species in a single square meter. Newer meadows take a long time to reach this equilibrium but even leaving your lawn unmown will soon result in wildflowers springing up, with plants like dandelions, clover and daisies sprinkling the surface and providing valuable food for bees and other pollinators.
Plantlife, a charity that supports Britain’s wild plants, has launched a campaign encouraging people to mow their lawns less often – dubbed No Mow May, it explains how doing this is so beneficial to insects like bees. It’s called Every Flower Counts, you might like to have a look, there is a short animation and activities that children can do (counting flowers!)
https://www.plantlife.org.uk/uk/discover-wild-plants-nature
The field above the church was planted in about 1998 by my parents as a permanent meadow. Every year, a slightly different mix of flowers comes up with different species gaining prominence as it evolves. Oxeye daisies, also called dog daisies, are the tall and showy white daisies you can see now. Mum (Suzie) says there is also yellow rattle, buttercup, beaked hawksbeard, bird’s foot trefoil, Lucerne, red clover, and common vetch and that they are best seen by the footpath to the churchyard.
The paddock by the road, along our drive, was awash with lovely cowslips this spring. There were so many, you may even have seen them from the car! It was planted about 19 years ago. Last year we found 3 pyramidal orchids there which was exciting. They were not planted, they just appeared in a mysterious way, perhaps from the old seedbank of seeds lying in wait in the soil, sometimes for decades. We wonder whether they will be back this year. They flower in June and July.
Longhorns
I decided to convert the farm to organic cultivation with the main emphasis on pasture. I selected Longhorns as a hardy, old-fashioned breed that can forage on mixed plants and survive well outdoors throughout the winter. I would like the system to be as un-intensive and natural as possible, using a minimum of feed and tractors – by planting trees on the farm and replanting permanent pasture, we are aiming for zero-carbon beef! I found a lovely group of young heifers on an organic farm in Cheshire. They arrived last spring and have recently been calving for the first time after a 9 month pregnancy like ours. A female cow remains a heifer until she has produced a calf. So far, we have had 18 calves. One was stillborn, so we bought a replacement to suckle the mother from a local organic dairy farm – easy to spot, she is entirely black, we have called her Midnight.
The others all have to have names beginning with U for their pedigree registration as English Longhorns. 2020 is U and I suppose 2021 will be V!
So far, we have Una, Uno, Ursula, Ulysses, Undine, Ulli, Ulf, Usiah, Ulrik, Uriel, Umberto, Umbrose, Ubi, Unity and Urquhart. An unnamed bull calf arrived 2 days ago and a heifer calf last night. Any suggestions of names for the last few to be born will be gratefully received – I must admit we are running out of ideas! Only one more to calve now. Fingers crossed it arrives safely, the first calving is the most risky.
The photo above show the latest to arrive, a gorgeous heifer calf who we hope will join the breeding herd,
