Veggie fields
Welcoming autumn on the farm means gearing up for what we call “second spring”, the transition from summer to winter crops. It is a balance between eking out the last of the tomatoes, peppers and beans and getting the salads and over winter crops in as soon as possible to make the most of the sunshine and warmer temperatures and get them established. Out in the field we are keeping an eye on the long term forecast and any sign of frost, which will trigger a flurry of big harvests including squash, celeriac and hard cabbages.
Some of you may agree that we didn’t have much of a summer weather wise, and the farm team have felt it in the fields. The month of sunshine in June established crops well but the following rainy months gave the weeds a head start and we have been struggling to out compete ever since. Thanks to our amazing group of volunteers on a Thursday morning who have been a massive help in hoeing weeds, we couldn’t have done it with out them!
One thing we have found tricky and costly this season is tractors. As some of you may or may not have seen SCA predominantly uses the type that look quite “retro”. These have been with the farm for nearly 10 years, and we are now getting to the stage when the bills for fixing them and making them safe is out weighing their worth. So this autumn the farm team are working on reassessing our tractor systems across our sites and what we need to update, improve and make safe.
Lastly the farm team are really proud of the abundance that has been coming off the fields and filling the packing shed these past months, it makes all the hard work feel worth while, especially when we get positive feedback from our members – so thank you!
Animal news
As the days are drawing in, our minds are starting to turn towards the winter months with our herd of Hereford cattle tucked up in the barn for the colder months, well Lucifer, the cows and the wee ones anyway! Our beef stock are going to be overwintered outside and fed sweet smelling silage. Over the last few months we’ve had an all clear from our TB test, which is always a huge sigh of relief on the farm, and our first new calf has been born. He had a rocky start to life, due to an inexperienced mum who didn’t give him quite enough TLC, he had a bout of fly strike and pneumonia. But through a whole team effort he’s pulled through and can be seen charging around the fields, tail aloft. The veg team and weekend
volunteers recently received some training from our vets around calving which will help us deliver an even higher standard of welfare to our animals to ensure the early signs are not missed.