The farm through the seasons – December
Our last round up of the activity on the farm for the year. We’ve really enjoyed catching up with the farm team over the year and it’s given us a real insight into the rhythms of farm life.
December continued with a sense of calm. The wet weather that has been experienced across the country has not caused us too many problems as our farm is fortunately situated on the top of the Wolds, but on lower ground it looks likely to have caused disruption on the flat farmland, through flooding and possible compaction of crops caused by long periods under water.
The month is one for planning. Our first plans will cover our crop rotation for this spring. We will need to take into consideration the soil health and the effects of the recent wet weather when making decisions to plan our spring barley & beans Busy months ahead for the team to get the crops drilled.
The farm team have been busy checking on our sheep flock who have been grazing on stubble turnips. Lambs will be off to market and the team will be transporting them a short distance to the coast. The circle of life continues as our ewes are joined by the rams in the fields. We have over 1,500 ewes and 15 tups or rams who will hopefully impregnate the ewes. The ram wears a sticky paint marker on his chest called a raddle. When he hopefully leaves the ewe pregnant it leaves a coloured mark on her bottom. This helps us know when they get pregnant and we can calculate the birth date – being roughly 145 days later when our busy lambing season will arrive.
We hope you have enjoyed hearing a little more of our farming story here in our 15th year, and the farm behind the business. After all, without the farm there would be no Yorkshire Rapeseed Oil.