I was looking back at what I last wrote and the plan then was to establish two-thirds of our arable land in the autumn with the remainder set for spring cropping.
How wrong plans can be. We managed to drill 50 per cent of the arable land, some of that in not ideal conditions. We will have plenty to do when the weather does finally settle down.
We are busy in the workshop maintaining and repairing machinery so we are ready for whenever the spring decides to appear.
Chickens are laying well at the moment; they are not free ranging very much, but then in this weather who can blame them?
We collect eggs in three sheds, totalling about 45,000 eggs a day. Eggs are then taken to a packing station to be graded and delivered to the supermarkets every other day.
The hens are free range and kept to Freedom Foods standards. This means that we have to maintain standards over the minimum requirements. These include: increased space per bird both inside and outside; correct number of drinkers and feed troughs per bird; correct perching and nest box space per bird and shelter must be provided outside to reduce stress. The afternoon’s various jobs are carried out in the chicken sheds – feed and water checked, bedding topped up, birds weighed regularly to check their health and lastly every day the sheds need to be shut up at dusk whatever the time of day.