Summer 2021-2022
Wet! Wet! Wet! Wet! Wet!
I could end the blog post here, as this sums up Summer!
We enjoyed being lulled to sleep every night by the rushing sound of the stream in flood in the forest - something that usually only happens for a handful of days in Summer. Waterfalls and streams popped up everywhere - it was exquisite and truly needed to be appreciated.
However, working in these conditions was not so pretty. The wettest Summer on record for 15 years! Farmers rarely complain about rain but when they do, that’s when you know it has been too much rain! Crops were washed away, fields flooded, roads and bridges washed away, trucks carting products out and supplies in kept getting stuck resulting in farmers on stand-by beside the road with tractors to pull trucks and cars out, some days the road was closed altogether… the power of water is immense. Our entrance bridge flooded multiple times, the worst of which being the day before Christmas Eve where Andre coming home from REKO, tenants, and guests had to be ferried across by the tractor, luggage and all, leaving their cars stranded outside. Fortunately it was low enough to drive through again the next day. We were lucky enough to have guests over December - although many of them regretted their holiday destination choice after being stuck inside all day every day because of the rain and terrible roads.
Photos: left to right:
The district road under water; before shot of our entrance; after shot of our entrance in flood, cars stranded and pillars washed away that had to be rebuilt
Plenty rescue missions of animals occurred with water funnelling down the mountain; cold, wet, and mud everywhere. Lower lying areas were flooded making rotation planning extremely difficult. The mud rendered our farm road almost impassable some days resulting in the tractor even getting stuck on numerous occasions. Luckily our friendly neighbours patiently pulled it out every time! This often meant carrying feed and water by hand, loading broilers and carrying the crates to where the vehicles could get to. On one farm walk that Thomas and I braved, we sunk knee deep into the mud! Our poor guys worked tirelessly in the mud and rain, day in and day out.
We tried to order gravel to lay over the worst sections of the road but even that was a fail because the truck got stuck and the gravel had to be offloaded, by hand, in the wrong place!
It seems the cattle were the only animals relatively unscathed by the rains. They just plodded along, rotating over the mountain, munching away, gaining weight. Now that the sun shines again we need to be extra vigilant for ticks and internal parasites.
The goats and sheep were hard hit by the weather. Pneumonia, ticks, internal parasites, foot-rot, fly-borne illnesses etc have taken a massive toll. As we reached late Summer, we said goodbye to the sheep and they moved to another farm for Winter as there were too many animals for the grass we have available. Adding another 200+ animals to the mix has been an enormous amount of work! The sheep were separated into three groups meaning three times the number of moves to be planned and executed, with different needs for each, on top of having parts the farm under water or a mud bath. Because the sheep and goats were enclosed in electric-fencing and mob grazed, we needed to tank water and feed to them which was very time consuming up and down the mountain with the tractor, and especially on the wetter, muddier days.
Yummy cover crop growing well!
Not as hardy as goats, the sheep really struggled, partly due to the stress of trying to adapt their rumen to new grass. But they have done some excellent grazing and regenerating in their time here.
Initially the goats rotated with the sheep but we decided to separate them as the goats can forage better and do not need as much supplementary feed in Summer. The goats now free-range with Rex, the livestock guardian dog, so that they can self-select what they need. While this is not as regenerative as mob grazing, for now it lightens the almost unbearable workload just a bit and provides the access to more shrubs that goats need which is difficult to fence around. The goat-sheep partnership did not unfortunately play out as we had all imagined, with many unforeseen circumstances on both sides, that put strain on both sides of the partnership. It is very unfortunate as it could have been such an amazing collaboration but it was a good teaching experience nevertheless.
The photos below show just how gloomy most days were, which did not help the situation feel any less stressful and overwhelming, especially on days where we couldn’t get the tractor up the mountain to check on animals, or haul water and feed to them.
Thulas counting the animals after a move 2. The “flerd” of sheep and goats
3&4. Rex leading his goats up the mountain 5&6. Proof that we did have some sunny days!
The broilers managed surprisingly well in the wet and we had unexpectedly low losses for the conditions they experienced. They seemed quite warm and content in their Salatin pens. The only issue they experienced was unfortunately the jackal took full advantage of the soft, muddy ground to dig under the pens and help themselves to dinner! A few nights with Rex down with the broilers, and additional reinforcing to the pens solved the problem.
Photos below: sheep and goats grazing the tasty green grass ahead of the broilers
The layers have shown stress with feather loss and reduced egg production, as well as parasites thriving in the wet conditions. We discovered that Aloe Vera is an exceptional, natural tonic and anti-parasitic so that has helped the hens a lot. We have also spent every spare minute exploring new feed options as we are not convinced that our feed is as nutritious as the hens require, making the hens weak and susceptible. Fortunately the hens can make up some losses with their pasture forage, but after some time, lacking nutrients takes a toll. After many years of searching and calculating, we have finally managed to come across a company willing to make a custom mix for our hens, antibiotic & hormone free, balancing what the hens have access to in our pastures, and containing organic trace minerals and natural gut health promoters. We can’t wait to see how they respond and the results in the eggs! We will start our next batch of broilers on this same feed in the coming weeks.
The pigs have been happier than… well, pigs in mud! There is nothing more appealing to a pig than mud - although some days it seemed to bother even them! Our youngest sow, Freida, gave birth to her first litter of piglets. They were fortunately old enough to cope in the mud but some days they were almost swimming with their little legs deep in mud and no way to move them!
Peppa Pig gave birth to her second litter, a beautiful, strong and large litter. So our piggies are doing so well!
They are currently tilling for us to plant cover crops as winter grazing for the cattle. Some hillsides and rocky areas are impossible to access with the tractor but hand seeding after the pigs have disturbed the ground is just as effective.
Farm Fun Fridays
At the beginning of December, we decided to host some kiddies farm tours. With the threat of yet another wave of COVID set on destroying holiday plans, it was a relaxed, outdoor activity that the kids loved! Unfortunately our last few tours were rained out but the response to the tours we did manage was very happy! The kids enjoyed a tractor ride around the farm, a first for many, and a fear-conquering exercise for adults and children alike! We fed carrots to the pigs, and chased after baby lambs, helped with moving animals, collected eggs, cuddled hens and then settled down for a picnic. The children enjoyed tasting the difference between cows milk and goats milk, and cows milk cheese and goats milk cheese. We talked about what foods come from each animal, while snacking freshly boiled eggs from the hens, and then had an in-depth discussion about the sources of the ingredients going into a cupcake. It was a lot of fun! The children enjoyed playing with the animals and we enjoyed the questions they asked. For some, it was quite a shock to see the sources of their food for the first time - what better way to raise conscious consumers!
This Summer has probably been one of the most challenging and draining seasons we have had, since our very first season at Bramleigh. Unintended consequences of decisions came back to bite us, in a big way. This has led to burnout, illness, reduced morale, and an unsustainable workload. Fortunately small farms benefit from being fast and nimble so we could make changes to our course pretty quickly but it has left us reeling, questioning, and exhausted to say the least. We are inexplicably grateful to our team who carried us. Their dedication kept us going when it should have been the other way round!
At the end of the day, we are so grateful for our team, our little family, and the adventures that we can have together on this beautiful piece of God’s earth, with His creatures! We took some time out to enjoy the last few days of Summer, catch our breath and then we start preparing for Winter. Just like the photos of wet and muddy roads, the journey gets slippery, muddy and difficult to see where you’re going. While you can’t see the track, you hope you’re on it and won’t slip off. Those muddy gouges leave a lasting imprint, wearing down to the tough subsurface, but that is where the strength of the whole road lies. That is the part of ourselves we have to dig deep enough to find when everything on the surface slips. And so we keep going.