From Jim & Gudrun’s field near Catton, Allendale The ewes and lambs receive excellent welfare and this year they have over-wintered the lambs. They are 11 months old rare breed Grey Faced Dartmoor or Grey Faced Dartmoor cross and the slaughter is at a nearby family run abattoir with meat matured for 5 days If …
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It was decided to postpone this meeting until 24th February as a result of positive comments coming back suggesting that people would have liked to attend but they didn’t hear about the meeting in time. Take a look at the event calendar entry for more information All other details of the meeting remain the same and remember that places …
Continue reading ‘New date for rush management and CAP workshop’ »
A number of new calendar events have just been added to the website but it’s possible that some may have already heard of these from other sources. Anyone who is interested should book in advance even if the event is shown as free. More details can be found using the direct web links to each …
Rush Management Workshop The rush management workshop was a success and the information covered in the workshop is explained in this pdf document: http://www.eblex.org.uk/wp/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/BRP-plus-Management-and-Control-of-Common-soft-Rush-060114.pdf Photograph of Ian Cairns explaining how deep the soft rush roots grow and that each seed head sheds thousands of seeds. The seeds remain viable in the seed bank for decades. …
A workshop covering Rush Management and Drainage has been organised by the North Pennines AONB and will be held on Weds 29th October at RSPB Geltsdale. Full details for the event are available on the calendar
On a hot, sunny weekend in late July, 8 people learnt how to mow a meadow at Low Way Farm near Middleton in Teesdale. Here’s an account of the weekend with quotes from participants. On the first morning, under the watchful eye of Steve Tomlin, we learnt how to set up the Austrian scythe to …
On a very wet Saturday in July a group of North Pennines smallholders met at The Hagg farm to have a cup of tea. We eventually walked down to the meadow, in the rain, to discuss various types of meadow management, agri-environment schemes and harvesting and spreading (upland hay meadow restoration). We were then delighted …
A meadow management workshop has organised by the North Pennines AONB and this will be held on Saturday 19th July in Allendale. What could be nicer than a few hours walking around the beautiful meadows of the East Allen Valley on a (hopefully) warm and sunny July day? Full details for the event are available …
Just a quick reminder that there is a workshop being held on July 5 at Burnlaw Centre to provide training and experience with wildflower and bumblebee identification. The event will cover identification of common wildflowers found in upland hay meadows during the morning with bumblebee identification in meadows and gardens in the afternoon. This is a …
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After attending the very informative machinery rings and skills sharing meeting organised by the North Pennines AONB last month, the idea of doing something similar within the North Pennines Smallholders has been on my mind. During the course of that meeting, the presentations from both the Ridings Machinery Ring and The Farmer Network gave an indication …