Farm & Conservation Blog

De-stoning and Beds for Carrots

Posted: 14th March 2011

They say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and, at the moment, for as far as I can see from my office all of our fields are blooming. They are planted up with vegetables, reseeded with grass, sown with cereals or have our free range flock of hens roaming in them – a beautiful sight in my view!

Perhaps the farm staff and I appreciate this view more than most as we know how many hours it has taken to complete and just how lucky we have been with the weather to be able to get on with the work. We have a reasonably light soil as the land is over sandstone bedrock but even so, too much rain can hold the planting up and get very frustrating.

Last month we made two purchases of machinery at either end of the scale. The first was a new ‘state of the art’ tractor which can only be described as a large computer on even larger wheels. We traded in a similar horse-powered second-hand tractor for it but that’s where the similarity ended. Eventually we will be able to drive the on-board computer (hopefully after more practice this summer) but for now I am just content to drive the tractor. The second purchase was a small, but very usable, second-hand potato planter which cost less than four hundred pounds but has planted five acres of potatoes without missing a beat. Having modern equipment is vital to getting jobs done quickly and efficiently but sometimes the simplicity and reliability of thirty year old technology still has its part to play in a modern farm business.

We also have a modern, mobile, laying hen unit up and running. This unit houses some 1200 hens so setting it up hasn’t been without its challenges. We have had several attempts by foxes and a pole cat to get into the hens but, thankfully, we have managed to keep them at bay so far with electric fencing and a stone apron around the shed. The hens themselves settled into the new unit very quickly and started laying eggs straight away. We already have over 50% production within just three weeks of moving into the new housing so the signs are good.

You may be forgiven for thinking that we have gone for production over welfare by opting for a large mobile unit but nothing could be further from the truth. The hens have exactly the same space and freedom as all of our other hens but automated feeding and egg collection means that they suffer less disturbance from us when we are filling feeders and collecting eggs. The chap supplying the hens to us said that we could easily get another three hundred hens in the shed but, although perfectly legal, that just defeats the object of the high welfare standards we are adopting. All the Penlan hens are genuinely free-range and their happiness and welfare remain at the heart of what we are doing.

Next month we are hosting a BeeWalk on the farm and we are lucky enough to have leading expert on bumble bees, Dr Pippa Rayner from the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, leading the walk. We have been undertaking some bee surveys on our land at both the Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire sites. I tagged along at the Pembrokeshire survey and was amazed at the numbers of bees and bee activity and also at the different types of bumblebees and other insects that seemed abundant on the day. It was a great experience for me and made me realise that when you are busy rushing around doing things you don’t always notice or appreciate what is right in front of you – perhaps a lesson in life!

The Bee walk takes place on Sunday 5^th June 2011 and is limited to 30 people. If you would like more information or want to book a place e-mail rowan@burnspet.co.uk

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