Welcome to our February newsletter

Food traceability

As you’ll know from reading my ramblings, I’m passionate about food traceability. We should all strive to know where and how our food is produced and that’s why many of our customers buy our meat. They know that the person selling it is the person who has overseen nearly the entire process. One of the key points in this chain of stages from field to frying pan is the abattoir. It’s not the part any of us want to dwell on while we’re enjoying a steak but it’s very important – so please stick with me.

We’re fairly lucky, the cattle and sheep we produce are killed at a very small, family run abattoir near Stroud. These small abattoirs are vital in the supply chain for people like us, who grow and sell their own meat - we know all the staff, we’ve been around the entire facility, we’ve seen how the animals are respectfully treated and we’ve seen the entire process – to us this is very, VERY important.

The supermarkets use large abattoirs that would not be interested in killing one or two cattle a month for a small customer, they would want a whole lorry load at a time.

The trouble is the small abattoirs are being lost. In the 50’s and 60’s you would have found an abattoir in most villages (many were at the back of the butcher’s shop) and certainly in every town, but by 2007 there were just 96 and by 2023 that was down to 49. At the current rate of decline they’ll all be gone by 2030.

The down side of this is multiple. Transport times and costs go up, animal welfare decreases and the supermarkets and big corporations take a tighter grip on our food system. I think the main reason for the decrease is due to the change in how we buy our meat, 80% of which is purchased from the supermarket rather than the local butcher. This has a knock on effect on where those cattle are slaughtered, the supermarkets will each use just a couple of massive abattoirs and the economies of scale kick in.

The abattoir we use is safe for the time being, but we could be about to lose another local(ish) one. Long Compton, a village near Chipping Norton has an abattoir which is about to be sold for building. It serves a large area and our good friends at Paddock Farm Butchery use it weekly for their pigs and cattle. If it’s lost the next nearest abattoir with capacity is an hour and 40 minutes away. As it’s very close to them, and a critical part of their very successful business, they are poised to launch a campaign to sell shares and raise £3 million to buy the site so it can carry on trading and servicing its 900 customers. This is all still in the early stages but it will be very interesting to see if the business can be saved. We deliver about two of our cattle a month to this abattoir, for supply to Paddock Farm, so we’ll do what we can to support the project.

Pop up farm shop Saturday 3rd February 10am – 12pm

Park Farm, Hook Street, Swindon, SN5 3NY

Our fresh 100% pasture fed beef will be filling the fridges this month and we have a small selection of our Oxford Down mutton & Hogget in the freezers (Fresh Mutton & Hogget will be available in April).

Plus we will have all the usual goodies including: bakery with the famous Marshalls lardy cakes, British in-season veg, crisps, Rosemary’s chutneys and jams, salami made from our own beef and more!

**Please note we will only be open on the Saturday for February and March shops (2nd March is the next date) due to other commitments.

Hedge laying

Hedge laying has started – just. The section allocated for hedge laying this year is a hedge where neither the hedge nor fence is stock proof. In fact the cattle pushed through it last year. The first job is to pull down the decrepit fence before thinning and laying. Laying a hedge involves cutting the stems nearly al the way through and then folding it over. It causes the hedge to thicken out and makes a much better habitat for nesting birds. It’s the single biggest thing many farmers could do to increase biodiversity. This year I’m going for speed over looks which means laying more stems and thinning less. This will be better for the wildlife in the short term but may make it harder for the next person to lay in 20 years time. I’ve not had much time to do the hedging yet but hopefully I’ll get plenty done in February.

Farm wildlife

It’s been a great month for birds, with five species cropping up that I only occasionally see. We had a Nuthatch on the farmhouse bird feeder, Mum has been seeing it regularly, although I’ve not seen it yet. Nuthatch are common in Lydiard Park but we’ve not recorded one here since 2020.

While returning across the fields, I spotted a Peregrine Falcon toying with a Cormorant which was just trying to get to Lydiard Park for a spot of fishing. The falcon was very half heartedly chasing with no real intent, but the Cormorant looked a little un-nerved by the experience! I only see Peregrines occasionally, perhaps twice a year, always fantastic to see, and one of the birds that 30 years ago you’d never think would live locally.

One bird that you might think I would see frequently, but you’d be wrong, are Swans. Again, only seen once or twice a year here. They are right up there with my very favourite birds, not because of the way they look but the way they sound. If you’ve ever been lucky enough to have a Swan or pair of Swans fly low over your head, you’ll know exactly what I mean! The sound of the air rushing around their wings I think is the (or one of the) best sound in nature.

Finally, two types of waders have put in an appearance. During the very hard frosts in the middle of January we had several flocks of lapwing over, some were very low so it was a great view. They’re very easy to recognise in flight as they look rectangular and they appear to flash black and white as they beat their wings. The other waders were some very high, probable Golden Plover. This was right on the limit of my bird identification skills but given the shape of the flock and the shape of the birds and the fact that they probably wouldn’t be anything else, I’m guessing Golden Plover.      

Sorry for the lack of photographs this month. We didn't have any wildlife or hedge laying ones so here's a picture of our cows enjoying eating species rich hay which was made at North Meadow in Cricklade in the summer.