Monthly Update - March 2023
There is more than an air of spring at Rushall Farm today. With extra help this year Farmer Steve is ploughing and preparing the land for planting wheat and barley. Oats are already in the ground and have been growing since last November. At harvest these will be sold for porridge and cereal bars. The wheat goes for bread making as long as the protein is high enough and it is sufficiently stretchy when made into dough; the barley with its wispy ears is used for malting and beer. Lambing of the second group of 300 ewes is just starting and it has been a successful time calving the first 30 cows. Winter has been interesting, with the hard frosts wiping out kale and turnip crops usually used to finish last year’s lambs, coupled with silage stocks being tight.
But what a lovely time spring is, with lambs gambolling for the pure joy of being alive. The woodlands are ringing with bird song as well as a flurry of activity nest building and providing food for their young. You can actually stand and watch buds bursting into leaf AND the succession of wild flowers; snowdrops, celandines, wood anemones, yellow archangel, and, of course the intoxicating smell and sight of carpets of bluebells. All have to “perform” by absorbing as much energy from the sun as possible before the canopy of leaves from the overhead trees dominates the scene.
It is not just spring in the air on the farm and woodlands, but a busy time for school visits, camps and another season about to start with events at the Manor site. Yesterday it was little ones learning about where their food comes from. It was cold but try suppressing the excitement and fun of being out of the classroom for a day, to include a tractor and trailer ride. An older group were not convinced it was cool to wear waders. They had constructed rafts plus a teddy and now it was time to test their efforts on the water. They returned knowing more about themselves, maritime engineering, what else lives in the River Pang and that wearing waders was OK!