Thursday 22 February 2007

Cream Crackers

I arrived at the yard this morning having followed a Frontier lorry along Crashmore lane, only to find a further 2 lorries waiting in the yard, to be loaded with wheat and beans. Graham will have loaded over 400 tonnes of farm produce this week alone, mainly wheat. Frontier Ag http://www.frontierag..co.uk has bought 348tonnes of grain in this contract.

The wheat is a variety called Claire, and is heading to a company called ADM (Archer Daniel Midland) based in Liverpool. The wheat will be cleaned, ground and the flour produced used to make biscuits. The flour will end up in a whole range of products from Jacobs Cream Crackers to Yorkshire pudding mixes. So next time you are tucking into the Sunday roast beef the Yorkshire's might have originated on the summit of Bredon Hill!

Monday 5 February 2007

New Arrivals


Born yesterday at Park Farm Overbury were the first lambs of the season. Triplets from a mule (Swaledale cross Blue faced Leicester)ewe to a Texel sire. The females will be retained and will move into our breeding flock whereas the males will enter the food chain in about 3 months. These guys will stay in at the farm for couple of days so that they can build up strength and make sure mum can provide all of the colostrum and milk required to ward off the cold nights ahead. We like to turn them out into the fields as soon as possible after the lambs are born where disease levels are much less, although close watching of the weather forecasts will determine exactly when that is, at this time of the year.
First try out in the pool at the weekend after some physiotherapy on a dodgy shoulder, no side effects yet! I need to be swimming 3 times a week. Week one the target is 2.9km each time, seems a bit excessive as I have to swim 5km in total. Still I suppose this chap Duncan Goodhew should know what he's on about!