Editors Welcome in July (From Smallholder)

Editors Welcome in July

1:00pm Thursday 1st July 2010 in

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Summer time, and though all is busy on the smallholding, it’s great to have long days to fit in everything that needs doing and (assuming that we don’t experience torrential summer downpours) not be clad in boots, coats and scarves. Though I do nearly always wear a hat in summer as it saves me looking like a boiled beetroot in the evening.

And this month’s Smallholder magazine is as busy as the summer promises to be!

Many readers have asked for a layman’s explanation on the tagging rules for goats and have commented on the problems they have found with tagging. This month we thoroughly explore this subject. We also turn our attentions to internal parasites in sheep and goats and wage war on worms! It can be confusing with all the different makes of wormer on the market to plan a worming routine but our experts offer their advice to help you keep your sheep and goats (and your grassland) worm free.

Recently I had a worm egg count done on my ponies and donkey’s droppings and to my surprise and delight it came out negative. We are not blessed with vast amounts of pasture and the ponies tend to graze the same field, partly because of this fact and partly because they are all prone to being overweight and cannot go on to the larger fields we use elsewhere. We also do not “poo pick” but harrow instead which traditionally is not supposed to be the best way to discourage worms. I do follow the worming programme as recommended by my vet but even so this was a good result. I’m left now though with more questions than answers, should I carry on with the worming programme, why, given that the management is not ideal to prevent worms on the grassland, are they all clear, could they be self medicating (our field is very natural and contains herbs and other plants plus has a huge and varied hedge around it). I think I need to look into this further but all comments from readers are welcomed.

One thing our ponies (and donkey) do is do have a “midden”, a corner of the field where they do the majority of their droppings. They are an established group of native ponies and I believe this is the practice amongst such animals. It makes for a tidier looking field and easier management.

We also continue our series about “real” smallholders where Simon Dawson explains how he and his partner came to be smallholders and how a pig changed their lives!

I become ever more adventurous in the kitchen especially as I have increased my herbs and am looking for new ones all the time. We look this month at what you can do with elderflowers of which there is normally an abundance and experts talk about pickling and preservation – strawberry jam anyone?

Recently I visited Wimpole Hall near Cambridge which has a wonderful farm attached, not just somewhere you can see a range of traditional livestock and poultry but also a real, live working farm which includes coppicing, scything and heavy horses. Wimpole is owned by the National Trust and like many of the properties UK wide, is passionate about local food.

In this issue of Smallholder we look at the beginnings of the National Trust, how it was founded for the people and how today, with their allotments and emphasis on local produce, it is still run for the people.

With more and more people becoming bee keepers, it is time, we thought, for an article on safety with bees. The only time I have ever taken risks, I have regretted it. Like the time I thought I would just sneak down and take off the mouse guards with just my veil – I wouldn’t bother with gloves and thick trousers. It’s as though the bees knew as they chased me down the field, the mouseguard sstill in place. Next day I dressed properly and removed them with no problems at all. Just a couple of guard bees came out and eyeballed me and went back in. Back on the subject of parasites, it’s time to look at poultry parasites and the most persistent and arguably the most life-threatening of these are the mite family – Northern mite, red mite and the not so common de pluming mite. It’s at this time of the year that I get horrified phone calls, “I opened the doors to my poultry and something came out and crawled all over me” - that’ll be mite then. The good news is that mite cannot live on humans, the bad news is they can live in sofas for ages in the hope that something feathery will come along. If you do feel as though mite have landed on you which will feel like a wave of crawling on the skin but you may not see them, then don’t panic. Firstly take off your clothes and have a shower (don’t leave mitey clothes on the carpet but straight into the washing machine or sink) and then plan how you are going to get rid of them. Our series of articles will help you do to this. And it’s a bit like the embarrassement of head lice, don’t be, poultry are very prone to mite and there are solutions out there now. Just keep on top of it.

We are also asked often about how to sex young birds and our waterfowl experts are looking at sexing goslings with a really in depth guide on how to do this. Also included in this bumper poultry section is a guide to the law and turkeys and an in-depth look at that most delightful of bantams, the appealing Japanese bantam.

So why not on a hot summer evening, pour a glass of last year’s cider (we still have some - just), sit down with your feet up and enjoy Smallholder magazine? There’s a lot to get through this month in our world of smallholding and grow your own. Enjoy.