Wychall School Visit

A rather cold and windy day greeted the school children from Wychall School in Birmingham as they visited the farm today.  However after the forecast on Friday we managed to stay outside all day, which was a bonus.  The children started off being split into 4 groups, the first looking at the vegetables being grown in the kitchen garden.  There isn't much at this time of year but a healthy supply of sprouts, cabbages, leeks and potatoes.  The second group called in at the green house and inspected the limes and flowers, from much warmer climates.  The third group came along with me to look at habitats and sheep.  Standing by the field entrance how many habitats could we see?  We easily spotted parkland trees, woodland, grassland, verges and a pond, a great game of eye spy.  The last group went to the Estate workshop to meet up with Alan and Simon to learn about the types of wood we use; and to make what, on the Estate and what a diverse natural material it is! The children all rotated around the four groups for an hour, with the movement keeping everyone warm! 

After a very hearty soup, made with vegetables the children saw earlier in the day growing in the kitchen garden and a warm up in the village hall; it was off in the coach to have a look at a field of Oilseed Rape.  Here we looked at the roots and earthworms, all helping to improve the soil and re-cycle the previous crop material.  Apart form someone falling over in the mud, everyone had a great day out and headed back to Birmingham with the fresh air filling their lungs. 

Wychall School Visit

On Tuesday 12th November we hosted the first of three annual visits from Wychall school.  Around 40 year 4's arrived bright and early on a glorious day to explore the farm.  Half of the group  started off in the kitchen garden looking at winter vegetables and what plants need to grow, while the other half learnt about our sheep flock and some habitat exploration.  After that we headed up to the tower field to do some history, on the Iron Age Hill Fort; and geography, looking at the counties around the hill.

We had lunch back at the Estate Office, with everyone removing their wellies.  Homemade soup was the order of the day with winter vegetables harvested from the garden, spicy pumpkin soup, which was delicious! After lunch we boarded the coach to head off to look at some cover crops, no time to see the rape and wheat, where we talked about roots, worms and soil.  It was a great day for the children who went home very tired after having so much fun. 

Wychall School Visit For The Day

Today was the first visit of the year to Overbury by Wychall Primary School from Birmingham.  The first visit had to be cancelled due to the bad weather in November so it was a very excited group of year 6's that arrived just after 10 this morning.  After a quick visit to the loos in the village hall, we headed to the park to look at our LEAF boards and then on to our Elm Tree, (see blog on the 8th Feb).

After that we walked through a small area of woodland, discussing different habitats and how we manage trees for conservation even after they have died.  We then met the Croome and West Warwickshire Foxhounds by the Estate Office, where we all met 'Goldie' the Golden Eagle, with a 7' wingspan, very impressive, and lots of foxhounds.

We loaded up into the coach and headed for Park Farm to see our own Lambing Live.  We saw 3 ewes that had 5 lambs between them and we met Tod our shepherd, up in the sheds making hurdles in preparation for lambing.  Our lambing pens will be open to everyone on Sunday 17th April.  Keep an eye on this blog, farm website or twitter for more details.  A brisk run up to the hill fort on the the top of Bredon Hill followed and a look around at the scenery and to discover direction Wychall School and home is in.

A hearty lunch followed accompanied with some fabulous homemade tomato 'Billy Soup'! After we had warmed up we headed to the fields once again, this time looking at wheat and oilseed rape fields.

Here is everyone with their scarecrows, made at school and brought down for us to judge.  There were some very good efforts with CD's, ribbons and faces all tied or glued onto canes, mops and sticks.  The winner was hard to choose but eventually after a close contest Penelope and I choose this one which will be keeping the pigeons well and truly scared from Bean Hill.  Thank you to everyone for being so well behaved, we had a great day taking you round the farm.

Lamb Control

Today we had to move a small bunch of store lambs down the road from a field of grass onto some stubble turnips.  The turnips were planted in the summer and should provide enough winter feed to fatten these lambs.  They are in a bunch of 77, with a further 260 to follow in a couple of days.  The road was quiet and after we had got them out of the gateway they moved swiftly down the road.  It amuses me that if you ever want to get sheep out of a gateway intentionally they will not oblige, however, leave that gate open when you want to remain in the field it's a different story!  Storm, the sheepdog, favourite at Wychall school, makes an excellent cornering manoeuvre to herd the flock into the field gateway.