Exit, pursued by a piglet has been the story this week as the kitchen has turned into a nursery to cope with the abandoned litter. Baby piglets would be a great educational resource for exposing teenagers to the realities of parenthood – cute to look at but demanding, noisy and lets face it a little smelly. Though unlike their human contemporaries, they very considerately climb out of their box to go and do their business in a corner – so no organic cotton nappies to wash.
The Chinese proverb says, “Never judge a sow till you’ve spent a week with her piglets” – but the orphan-maker went a step too far when she bit another sow’s piglet. Stitchy as he is now known does a great impression of Kevin Spacey in the Usual Suspects and will always be one gigot roast short of a prime pig – but his mum has taken him back and he’s recovering well.
The bad besom is now in solitary and will be going to Whitley Bay on the next bus, sadly not for a holiday.
The Cheviot gimmers are getting into the spirit of lambing – mostly singles which they will manage better and will fatten quicker. Counting to two does seem to be a challenge for them, unlike newly hatched chickens who can do arithmetic up to five.
On the other hand, sheep can recognize up to fifty different sheep faces and remember them for two years. Not my gift: I can’t really tell the sheep apart until I’ve sprayed a big number on their side, and would probably have to phone a friend to get to fifty humans.
Interesting discussion with a community group in Fife this week about dairies and how their local milk had disappeared over the last few years. We wondered about what it would take to get a doorstep delivery going again by setting up a partnership between the community and one or two local farmers.
A town of about 5,000 people would need about 80 organic cows to keep it in liquid milk and according to recent research would benefit from fewer childhood allergies as well as a much lower carbon footprint. The current system which trucks milk to large homogenization plants and back again takes nearly two thirds of the 70p cost of a litre of milk, and leaves 25p for the farmer.. but crunching the numbers to see if a community supported dairy could do better would be a job for the chickens rather than the sheep.
A week is a long time in farming. The spell of fine weather has transformed the ground conditions so we have been able to finish the muckspreading and landscaping. The cattle have gone out to the field for calving and with us weaning the calves so late there hasn’t been much roaring. We managed to put a new skin on the polytunnel – only challenge now we’re not open to the sky is to fix the water pump. Onions should go in next week and then the potatoes.
