What happened on the farm in August?
The dairy had it's tenth birthday on the first of August. We celebra- ted with an anniversary meal.
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| 10 years on we now use about 80% of the milk produced by our dairy herd, there are now seven people working on the farm and in the dairy and we have managed to keep most of sales within a 100 kilometer radius of the dairy. Challenges... there are of course many still to over- come. Our thanks to all the people who have helped us along the way.
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Flower of the month: Oak-leaf lettuce(Chicorium intybus) (Lactuca quercina?) |
| Some sources consider this lettuce to belong to the chicory family whilst others place it with the lettuces. It does well at relatively low temperatures and is thus planted late in the year for winter salads. As with most lettuces, it is made up mainly of water but it is of the richest veggies in vitamins, mineral salt and fiber. It is also one of lettuces with most Omega 3 and antioxidants.
The leaves and flower buds are a mixture of purple, mauve and green and yet the flowers are bright yellow. These appear when the lettuce shoots which it does rather spectacularly. |
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Recipe of the month: Pesto
| Pesto sauce has its origins in Liguria, Italy and its main ingredient is basil accompanied by garlic, pine nuts and, traditionally, parmesan cheese. It is used to accompany numerous dishes, mainly pasta.
30g basil leaves
1 clove of garlic
30g pine cone nuts
Olive oil
Parmesan cheese (or a different sort) amount and type to taste
Salt
Toast the pine cone nuts in a frying pan with no oil. Place in a blender. Peel and roughly chop garlic and add to blender with basil leaves and olive oil. Add salt to taste and blend all until thoroughly mixed. Finely grate cheese (if not already grated) and add. Blend until a smooth and then decide what to use it with!
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What was the weather like?
| The first three weeks of the month we had quite a lot of cool, misty weather (noticeable on plants such as moss that would usually turn quite brown and crisp this time of year).
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| We also had some hot sunny days and then sunny and cloudy weather. Overall, however, it has not been a typical August. Whilst cool misty weather is good for grazing and plants such as leeks, green beans and carrots in the allotment, it is pretty disastrous for tomatoes which tend to rot. Despite the damp conditions it did not actually rain a lot and we only collected 22 litres in the rain gauge. The thermometer reached 22ºC in the hot spells but dropped to only 12ºC some mornings. |
This colourful caterpillar appeared but we haven’t been able to positively identify it. |
| Two species of tiger moths visited the farm in August, the Garden tiger moth (Arctia caja), |
| and the Jersey Tiger moth (Euplegia quadripunctaria). |
| We also found these eggs in the soil when lifting the potatoes, most probably snail eggs. |
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What did the cows eat? In August the cows were given grass silage, alfalfa, a little feedstuff and were also able to graze a little. | Another heifer calf was born in August much to our delight. We will sell on the two bull calves that were also born. |
The quality of our milk
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Parameter
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Optimum result
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Farm result
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Fat content
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>3,70
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3,75
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Protein
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>3,10
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3,15
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Bacteriology
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<100.000
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12.000
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Somatic cell count
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c.150.000
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237.000
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Presence / absence antibiotics
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Absence
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Absence
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