This February, all the members of the Plaw Hatch management group took part in a 3-day Holistic Management Course. Holistic Management, like biodynamics, is about working with the whole farm organism and with, rather than against, ecosystem processes.
Read MoreLambing is pretty much the most important time of the shepherding year. This lambing we have had just over 90 lambs born in 3 weeks.
Read MoreWool is a wonderful fibre but is much underused in fashion and textiles. When it is, farmers get a woeful amount per fleece. Bella, who volunteered with us earlier in the year, is hoping the work of the Fibreshed movement is starting to change this.
Read MoreOver the summer I have started to take Pip the sheepdog out with me and we’re starting to work together well.
Read MoreLambing went by very quickly this year, with 55 ewes lambing in just under three weeks! Miriam Fuller, who came back from being a full time Agriculture student to run lambing, gives an insight into her experience.
Read MoreScanning is an important point in the shepherding year, allowing our farmers to prepare for the coming lambing that is now just over a month away.
Read MoreMiriam is moving onto exciting pastures new. We’ll miss her but are looking forward to hearing about her future adventures!
Read MoreAlthough they are very sweet and so friendly, shepherds always start out a lambing season hoping not to have any bottle fed lambs. We have five this year!
Read MoreThe ewes have been scanned and we’re expecting 109 lambs in six weeks! This year, Gala put our two new Shetland, Icelandic and Poll Dorset cross rams in with some of the flock, so we’re all excited to see their multicoloured lambs.
Read MoreIn the many debates that erupt every January about food it can be easy to forget that farmers are people and that they eat too. Gala Bailey-Barker, shepherd of the Plaw Hatch Flock, doesn’t eat meat when she’s not cooking at home unless she know where it has come from. In her words “I choose to eat meat and would always rather eat an animal I have known than one I haven’t.”
Read MoreFarmer and shepherd, Gala Bailey-Barker, reports on her experience of shearing this year and being able to get hands on with the flock.
Read More
Maya, Miriam and Louisa kicked the year off by attending the Oxford Real Farming Conference.