Oak house Farm News

You might notice something different in the shop this week. Tash who joined us just over a year ago as our shop assistant and sausage maker has decided to go back to studying and looking after her young children. We wish Tash all the best for the future. Georgina will be in the shop this week and we will hopefully have some new help soon! Profile This week: something different— a visiting Red Kite. Over a recent weekend we were lucky enough to have a Red Kite visit us. The bird spent quite a lot of time flying over some of the meadows around the farmyard and has been spotted a couple of times since. These fabulous photographs were captured by our neighbour Barbara Rush. Vet visit The vets that we use for our livestock are from a specialist large animal practice based in Chelmsford. The practice only deals with cattle, pigs and sheep meaning that they can have deep expertise in these species. As well as for occasional emergencies, we have routine visits from our vet 2-3 times each year to carry out any non-urgent tasks and usually to check that the cows are back in calf in line with our expectations. This week saw a visit from our vet, Ian, who came to check the pregnancies on the cows and remove the horns and add a nose ring to our new home bred stock bull, Paddington Bear (more on this next week). Pregnancy diagnosis on the cows is a high-tech affair using a portable version of an ultra-sound scanner, to look for a calf. Ian can identify a calf so long as the foetus is over 35 days old and in the early stages of pregnancy can provide a very accurate date that the animal should calve. Most of the cows are in calf as expected, but we have a few that have not managed to get back in calf and we will monitor these over the next couple of months.Profile This week: something different— a visiting Red Kite. Over a recent weekend we were lucky enough to have a Red Kite visit us. The bird spent quite a lot of time flying over some of the meadows around the farmyard and has been spotted a couple of times since. Opening Times  Wednesday 9am - 3pm  Friday 9am - 5pm  Saturday 10am - 4pm  Please observe our C-19 precautions in the shop (details on the door)