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ROD
AND BEN'S ROUNDUP - Week
29
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ORDER
DEADLINE - Monday Midnight |
First Swallow of Year 13th
April
First Swallow of the Year 3rd May |
June
rainfall 1.93 inches
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Suicide Pact
It seems a shame to use up editorial
space on asking you to return your boxes but the message just
does not seem to get through any other way. The cost of the
cardboard box has inevitably gone up in price, not by any small
amount I hasten to add, but by some 20 %. The cardboard box
costs us £1 of good English
money, we budget that they should do at least 8 trips (Physically
they can do many more) but the simple fact is they do not come
back, we are trying to prevent having to put the prices of the
boxes up, please help us by returning them.
It’s cold, and it’s painful
watching the plants grow this year, no significant warmth and
the very high rainfall is making this a challenging year to
be a grower. I saw an old friend who has been growing vegetables
for over 20 years on Monday, he is fairly dour on a good day
he asked how we were getting on and when I said it was a challenging
year, he exclaimed they are all challenging years if you grow
vegetables. He said this is the last year he is entertaining
the idea of growing vegetables on his soil type (shillety clay).
We are more fortunate, our deep red soil warms up quickly and
drains well, but none the less the sneak preview of the currant
bun we had this week is not going to fool the plants that summer
is here in earnest and our team have barely had there skin
sun side this year, still preferring the warmth of a thermal
fleece.
Artificial heat keeps our newly arrived
turkeys warm and they are growing really well apart from an
early suicide pact by 11 three day old turkeys trapped
behind a feed bag, we have lost very few. Suicide pact? Turkeys
have a desire to get into, on top of or behind anything. This
is fine in a singular situation, however once in situ this
turkey chick then calls in the next chick, before long you
have 30 chicks all on top of each other, the ones at the bottom
suffering from the weight of the ones above. They do pass through
this stage but you have to remind yourself every time you go
in the pen, not to leave any traps behind, a simple bucket
left in the pen can be fatal to a huge number of birds.
Talking of birds birds, the crow family,
namely the Jackdaw and Magpie have been causing havoc with
our brassicas, having protected them from the rabbits it was
frustrating to find these cunning little birds stripping the
precious leaves from our winter crop. I think this is also
a sign that it’s been a poor
summer with less food for them and so they are looking for easier
pickings. We have “gapped up” and covered the field
in fleece. The banger is merely laughed at by the crow family.
Don’t forget open day 9th of August,
10-3, BBQ and soup all welcome, more info nearer time.
All
the best Rod.
Rod and Ben
Bickham Farm,
Kenn, Exeter,
Devon,
EX6 7XL
tel 01392 833833
fax 01392 833 832
email: RodandBen@RodandBens.com
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