Marchweeke Farm,

Each month we provide an update on the activities and events that have taken place at Marchweeke Farm as we develop our own beef, lamb, pork and poultry enterprises.

Nature seems to have a way of balancing itself; the wet summer has been followed by a period of bright, dry autumn weather that has provided an ideal opportunity to cultivate the land in preparation for drilling the winter corn. Now that the first green shoots of the wheat and oats are emerging above ground we can see how straight our tractor driving was! Some of the oat drill rows have some gaps; not through any fault of the tractor driver or drill but as a result of a flock of two hundred rooks who acquired a taste for our seed corn. With their heavy beaks they probe down into the loose earth to pull out the seed; skilfully removing the kernel and leaving the chaff.

Rooks, like the other corvines, are full of cunning. While the majority of the flock are tucking in there always appear to be a few that are perched on high vantage points acting as look-outs. As I attempt an ambush from behind a hedge they give a raucous alarm call; alerting their brethren who rise and wheel as one in a crescendo of cawing. After many generations of persecution by man the rook has developed an innate sense of the firing range of a shotgun! Having wasted several hours building up a sweat whilst chasing rooks from field to field I purchased a gas-fuelled bird scarer that bangs intermittently. The majority of the flock are now feeding on our neighbours’ fields; we assume that those that remain are the older ones that are hard of hearing; probably as a consequence of too many seasons exposed to bird scarers! Having fruitlessly discharged the contents of two boxes of shotgun cartridges I did finally manage to shoot one; Julie rather unkindly suggested that he died of laughing. The unfortunate culprit was then suspended from a branch in middle of the field as an example to the rest of the flock but the following morning it was gone. The patch of scattered black feathers indicating that a fox had taken advantage of a free snack of rook on a stick!

If it isn’t rooks it’s rabbits! Last winter we housed the autumn lambing flock and fed hay and corn but the ewes lost some body condition and didn’t milk as well as we might have hoped so this month we have sown a field of fodder rape. This is a type of brassica that can be grazed by sheep or cattle during the winter months when grass is in short supply. A convenient heavy shower of rain followed the drilling and the crop has established well except in a few patches where it has been gnawed off by rabbits! The damage is limited so I am inclined to let them enjoy their meal, relaxed in the knowledge that the fox will probably get them once he has finished digesting his rook!

In many respects October is the start of the farming year; besides being the month when the winter cereal crops are sown it is also the start of the sheep calendar when the rams run with the ewes during “tupping”. Traditionally Michaelmas, celebrated on September the 29th, was the day when farm labourers presented themselves, along with their tools, at the local market town for hire for the following year. Country folklore has it that you mustn’t eat blackberries after Michaelmas as the devil has spat on them because he landed in a bramble patch when he was thrown out of heaven on St Michael’s Feast Day! The blackberries in the hedgerows are certainly past their best but the wet summer has suited the blackthorn which is full of fat sloes and the oak trees are laden with acorns.

Although winter beckons it is a pleasure to walk through dew- drenched grass in the early morning to check the cattle as they graze by the river Dalch; their breath like steam in the chilly air. The cattle are in prime condition now with rounded rumps; heavy tread and shining coats, a testament to a summer of plentiful grazing.

Have a good month. Julie, Simon and Rebecca