Overbury Farms News

The rams have really been doing their stuff in the last 4 weeks with almost all of the ewes now hopefully pregnant.  In the first week over 600 ewes were mated, as indicated by the chalk dye that the rams leave of the rumps of the ewes during mating.  The gestation period is about 5 months so we're on for a mid April lambing, which next year will be outside for the majority of the flock for the first time.

There are just 4 days left (expires on Monday 11th December 2017) to check out Farmer Jake showing JB how we use Drones at Overbury on CBeebies ‘Down on the Farm’.

Click here to watch now.

There is so much public awareness of the perceived issues with Glyphostate at the moment even though 3300 studies have shown it to be a very benign chemical when used correctly in the field.  With any potential restriction on its use being enforced on us I wanted to have a look at an alternative method of killing a cover crop before we plant our harvestable, or cash crop, into the field.  To me a cover crop can only enhance the soil and the wider environment.  It shields the soil from rain, reducing runoff and erosion; it feeds the soil biology with carbohydrates and encourages the development of below ground microbial populations; provides winter feed for our sheep; increases soil organic matter to hold more nutrients and water - it’s a no brainier for the farm and the wider environment.

For the last 3 years we have been experimenting with companion crops in our oilseed rape fields, that is growing more than one species of plant together.  The companions are mainly based around legumes to try and increase the amount of atmospheric nitrogen that we can capture and then make available to our farming system, and why wouldn’t we?  The atmosphere is 76% nitrogen, yet our cereal and brassica plants cannot use any of it.  But legumes can-and they do it very quickly. 

One of the easiest and simplest ways to assess the health of your soil is to dig up, count and weigh the earthworms that you find.  So we did just that.  We took a section of soil measuring 20cm wide, 20cm across and 30cm deep and tipped it into a container before sorting through the soil and removing all of the worms that we could find.

We have planted 25 hectares of wild bird food all over Bredon Hill this year which is an area greater than all of the Premier League football pitches in the 2016/17 season!

Last week was British Wool Week.

Here at Overbury we have a large flock of around 1,200 sheep.  Every February and September Reg the Shepherd, together with a team of sheep shearers, give the whole flock a good trim.  Shearing the sheep’s wool helps keeps our flock healthy and it has the benefit of cooling them down as well as ensuring any dirt and parasites, which can live in the wool, don’t turn into an infection or disease.

August is a busy time of year for us at Overbury Farms.  With the warm, dry weather we have had it’s been all systems go with the combine harvester with some long days and working well into the night.

Last week was interesting.  Here’s what I was up to:

On the beautifully sunny evening of  Thursday 12th May, some of our new tenants and staff were treated to an evening with Paul, Head Gamekeeper here at Overbury. The tractor (driven by the lovely Graham) towed the trailer load of us down to the Hatchery. Here, Paul showed us how the pheasant and partridge are bred on the Estate, right...

Lambing began mid-March at Overbury, with a few early arrivals followed by the remainder of the crop making appearances day and night for 6 weeks. This year’s dream team worked in the sunshine and rain as the weather decided to be a little unsettled. We managed to get a shot of everyone in the sunshine and smiling before the rain arrived!...