As from the start of January 2012 we have altered our opening times.

For the first quarter of the year we will only be open on these days and times;

Wednesday 9-5

Friday 9-5

Saturday 9-2

We we increase our hours from the end of March.

David

Farming Talk: Hoping that our busy days continue

Wednesday 25th January 2012, 8:00AM GMT.

David Morgan at his stall

Well, we’ve moved from the hectic festive season with oven-ready geese, turkey, sausages, lamb and beef joints on the market, to the calm after the storm that is January and the New Year.

I was pleased with our Christmas sales; we’re all hoping that this can continue through 2012.

We are attending our regular markets in Church Stretton, Ludlow and farmers’ markets in Craven Arms, Knighton and Bishop’s Castle.

We have successfully begun production from our Solar power projects, before the December 12 deadline and have produced over 850kWatts of power so far.

It seems more individuals and farm businesses will be looking into electricity production on their properties, whether it is from solar, wind or from hydro.

I have been talking to a farmer from Diddlebury who is quite keen on hydro-electric power production.

I’ll be working some figures out on the feasibility of an installation at Strefford Hall.

Phil Preece scanned our ewes on January 3 and we were pleased with the results considering how dry our ground had been since last May.

Only a handful of barrens, of which three were ewe lambs, giving us a lambing percentage of about 170 per cent.

Lambing time should be less labour-intensive, having fewer triplets.

Kim, my wife, will be banned from the lambing shed this year because of the pregnancy and I will be showering and changing at the farmhouse before coming home.

At last we have finished using the bean haulm (straw) to litter the cattle.

The wheat straw does not create as much dust and the cows prefer it.

The wheat straw looks so much nicer, too.

We will be interviewing Harper Adams gap year students tomorrow, trying to find one who will learn from us at the same time as bringing new ideas into the business.

Gap year students can help with looking at your own business, developing new ideas and keeping up to date with current thinking.

David Morgan, Strefford Hall Farm, Craven Arms.

Read more: http://www.shropshirestar.com/business/the-farmer/farmer-blogs/2012/01/25/farming-talk-hoping-that-our-busy-days-continue/#ixzz1kymbCDri

Life is full of deadlines; however I don’t think anyone saw the Government announcement that feed in tariffs for solar PV installations would be reduced on the 12^th December this year, rather than the 1^st of April next year.

We were among many farmers who had already spent thousands on a small-scale electricity production project. Luckily we had just received notification of our planning permission the day prior to the government announcement; it has not been easy,

We have a D.S.O. agreement to put 53kWatts of power through the transformer, but when we had only 20 days remaining to the deadline, the metre company decided that we needed a new metre which would have delayed us beyond the deadline. As a result we have had to reduce our project to 39kWatts. What an injustice; we followed government guidelines, and then at the stroke of a pen they leave us with huge costs if we don’t meet the new time-scale. We may get the metre changed and install the remaining 14kWatts after the deadline, but that will depend on new quotes being very favourable.

Our beef has been hanging since the end of November, ageing on the bone ready for the Christmas trade. In addition to the farmers markets we have started attending Ludlow’s Friday market with our butchery trailer, we have had a good response and I can see a real future for our pitch here.

Our Geese are booked to be slaughtered this week. We take them to William Brisbourne at Nesscliffe. He has hundreds of free range poultry of his own which he rears for the Christmas trade. They will be killed and hung there for 10-14days, before being dressed ready for our collection. We then match them to our customers’ orders.

Meg, Dad’s new sheepdog pup is starting to listen to basic commands. She looks very enthusiastic, but we’re all wondering when her legs will stop growing.

Later this month we scan our ewes, Phil Preece usually visits to do this between Christmas and New Year. I was married to Kim earlier this year and we already have a little one on the way; the 20 week scan is booked for 27^th December, so I must remember to make sure Phil scans another day!

We have now started using our new market trailer.  We had it made by Motiv Trailers, aka Tim Hughes from Trailers and components of Stoneacre near Craven Arms.  We had Les Price to put some signs on for us, and once I’ve sorted some nice photographs out, he’ll put some lovely pictures of the cattle and sheep on the side.

We have started taking Christmas orders.  Please email for a Christmas order form and for details of our seasonal opening times.

We’re building a new website which will have a blog that I’ll be using to use to keep you updated on what we are currently doing on the farm and farm shop.