Our stock selling this year is a bit dire: we are suffering a double whammy in that we have not found time to advertise enough, plus with the severe summer we have had, stock is not shifting this autumn as much anyway due to the lack of forage. Some farmers have been feeding hay/ haylege to their animals since August – forage which was meant to last all through the winter. This basically means they will run out and have to buy in, so driving prices upwards. We are already paying £5 a bale for hay, last year it was £3.50!! We have sold some animals: today we said goodbye to a second wether (third in from the left, Mrs White’s boy) as it went off to be a companion to an entire ram – the first went a couple of weeks ago. And we have also sold four out of the six goats and we MAY be about to sell Caraway and this year’s steer!
On the poultry front we have sold virtually all the ducks, as many chickens as we 'think' we want to but we are left with a good four/five turkeys we had hoped to part with. We should be heading into the winter with less than 50 birds. We currently have 101!! Around 25 ish are booked to be dispatched in three weeks but that stil leaves over 70!!!
Hmmmm!!!