Vista Alegre Baserria Month by month in the farm
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March 2018 PDF Print E-mail

What happened on the farm in March?



We received many visits in March. Three schools took advantage of

a Basque Government programme to help secondary school students

visit farms and thus get a better understanding of farm life. The first

group came on March 1st from the Balmaseda Secondary School,

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three groups came from the Ikastola Deuna Ander from Sopela on

the 6th, 7th and 15th

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and a group came from the San Viator Secondary School in Sopuerta on

the 14th.

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On the 17th a family from Muskiz visited the farm and dairy
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and on the 22nd a group of 25 lady farmers belonging to the Basque

Farmers’ Union (EHNE).

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Lastly, on the 24th five people came as part of the Ranero-Armañón

(Karrantza) Natural Park Centre’s activities, amongst them Itxina from

Larrabetzu

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who drew this beautiful cow.
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Miren, Eva and Helen, the three women in the Vista Alegre work team,

took active part in the strike organized to “celebrate” or, better said,

to “make a point” on March 8th , International Women’s Day. Rather

than working in the dairy we went to the gatherings held in the local

school playground and then in the main square in Kontxa, Karrantza

and in the afternoon we supported the demonstration held in Bilbao.

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Flower of the month: Willow (Salix sp).
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There are around 400 bush and tree species in the willow family, some

also known as sallows and osiers. Willows tend to inhabit damper

grounds in cold and temperate regions of the northern hemisphere.

Willows are very cross-compatible and there are numerous hybrids

which difficults clear identification of some species. This may be due

in part to the fact that they are dioecious, in other words the male

and female flowers appear on separate plants. Many species of willow

have been used through the ages in medicine (most notoriously against

headaches) and rural crafts such as basket and fence making. Willows

are also present in many religions and cultures, for example the Jewish

Sukkot or the Chinese Tomb Sweeping Festival (Qingming). Willows are

found along most hedgerows on the farm and in spinneys or copses.




What was the weather like? March was mainly cold and

damp with rain, sleet and snow. In fact it there was snow on the

ground on the first day of Spring!

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We also suffered some very strong winds, with consequences of various

sorts such as toppling trees.

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We collected a total of 241 litres of precipitation in the rain gauge so

that although we could  took advantage of a break in this weather

during the second week of March to let the cows graze outside, the

total amount of precipitation meant surface runoff was visible in many

fields and the cows could not graze often.





What did the cows eat?

The cows spent most days in the barn due to the weather and we

gave them grass silage, hay, alfalfa, dried peas and a little feedstuff.

However they grazed outside during the second week of March and

on some of the drier days we were able to mow grass and take it to

the cows in the bar, such freshly cut grass being known here as

“greens”. However, as mentioned, the predominantly rainy conditions

meant we could not continue to do this throughout the whole month.


Recipe of the month: Apple, walnut and yoghurt cake.

(Thanks Sally!)

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Serves 8 to 10 people

 Butter or oil for greasing tin

5 desert apples (about 600g), cored, peeled and sliced

3 large eggs

120g honey

125g natural yoghurt

50ml olive oil

210g self raising flour

50g walnut pieces

25g butter diced

40g demerara sugar

 Heat oven to 160 degrees C, (180 degrees C non fan).

Grease 23cm springform cake tin, line base and sides with baking paper.

Roughly chop half of the apple slices, keep rest for decoration for top

of cake.

 Put eggs and honey into bowl, whisk vigorously for 3 minutes with hand

held electric mixer (longer by hand) until pale and fluffy.

Stir in yoghurt with a wooden spoon.

Drizzle in olive oil and stir well until all mixed together.

Sift flour into bowl and mix until smooth.

Toss in the chopped apple and walnuts and give a thorough stir.

 Spoon mixture into cake tin, smooth evenly with back of spoon.

Arrange remaining apple slices on top.

Dab pieces of butter over top of cake and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake for 45 minutes until cake is golden brown and springs back when

you press gently down on it/a knife or skewer inserted into middle comes

out clean.

Leave to cool in tin for 10 minutes. Preferably, eat warm or at room

temperature and on the day of baking.

Optionally, serve with more natural yoghurt or double cream.

(If no fresh or stored local apples are available bottled apple may be

used: mix 300g of well-strained bottled apples in the mixture instead

of apple slices and instead of placing apple on the top of the mixture

before placing it in the oven, we suggest some bottled apple is

strained and then heated with the demerara sugar and placed on top

of the cake just before serving). 


Wildlife is becoming more apparent as Spring starts. This mole spent

over 10 minutes running around in the grass before returning to its tunnels

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and we spotted many deer and a beautiful hare. We also managed to

spy these moths on one of the walls despite being very well camouflaged.

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Maintenance is endless on a farm, but we also have to do repairs and

maintenance in the dairy, in this case adjusting some of the pipelines on

the pasteurizing tank.

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Other chores included replacing turf sods moved by wild boar in one of

the fields and we managed to do some slurry spreading during the week

of drier weather.


On March 28th we were visited by two people from a company marketing

feedstuff for cows. However, this was not to offer us their products, but

rather to gather information on organic dairy farming as they are planning

to adjust their whole business feedstuff policy having observed the

growing tendency towards conversion of dairy farms to organic stan-

dards. An interesting visit as it gave us some insight into how and why

such companies change their policies. It is also encouraging to think that

more and more farms are considering conversion to organic standards.


We have decided to change the packaging of our pasteurized milk

having experienced growing problems with the bags we currently

use. We organized a small questionnaire for our customers, enquiring

about their preference for glass or plastic bottles and have begun to

receive (very mixed!) answers. We also visited a small farm dairy in

Gipuzkoa that sells milk in glass bottles in order to gather information

and their views on the subject. The major issues will be space,

weight of bottles, sterilizing any bottes returned to the farm and the

design and printing of a new label. We are hoping to change the

packaging by Autumn.


Recently our cows have only been calving bull calves. The one heifer

calf born unfortunately suffered a breathing disorder and died soon

after birth. The lack of heifer calves obviously generates a problem

for on farm regeneration of our dairy herd and we may soon after to

start trying to locate and buy pregnant heifers and hope they give

birth to heifer calves.



The quality of our milk

Parameter

Optimum result

Farm result

 

 

 

Fat content

>3,70

3,94

Protein

>3,10

3,25

Bacteriology

<100.000

8.000

Somatic cell count

c.150.000

98.000

Presence  / absence antibiotics

Absence

Absence


 
Schools


Special corner for schools: visit our special corner for schools for special information about our farm and the farm dairy. There are resource materials for teachers. In this corner you can find out how to arrange a class outing to our farm.



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