Lambing in the snow

Lambing time

Good choice girl, keep them warm in the hay shed!

Lambing has started for the Heady herd!

When winter really hits it is a daily struggle to do the simple jobs. These minus temperatures have frozen up water troughs, and made access difficult. Luckily for these girls I'll be out there until until the jobs done to make sure the Heady Herd stays happy!

Let me tell you about our Heady Beef Herd Just like our lamb it is born and raised the natural way on our small family farm in Drayton Parslow. Our beef is managed to minimise stress, maximising welfare which creates ethical meat that tastes great! After our bulls Guss (the Pedigree Aberdeen Angus) and Shortie (the Pedigree Shorthorn) have done their work in the late summer, our cows are left to graze the Ash Farm grass whilst feeding and caring for their current calves which were born the previous spring. They stay together grazing outside until the winter weather forces us to bring them in to the cattle shed. By this time the calves are ready for some independence and move to a yard all of their own (just across the fields), leaving the cows to eat our home grown silage, lay in the fresh home grown straw and finish their pregnancy in peace. Come spring time the new calves are born inside, allowing us to closely monitor the cows at this crucial time and enabling us to intervene if necessary during calving. As soon as we are happy that the calves are healthy and have learnt to suckle on their own we turn them out with their mothers on the fresh grass, to grow and play. Like their mothers, the weaned calves stay warm and sheltered inside during the winter months. They’re fed home grown silage and bedded down on straw we cut at the last harvest. They are also given barley (which we grow ourselves) to help them develop. As soon as the weather warms up they are turned out to enjoy the fresh spring grass and spend the summer outside. This cycle continues until they are over 2 years old and matured to their full beef potential. Our small Heady Beef Herd is managed in a calm and low stress manor, using home produced feed and bedding to create truly local, low input beef that tastes great. We are now taking orders for beef boxes – please contact us if you would like more information or would like to place an order.

This is what you would find in your half lamb box. Feedback from our last delivery has been really positive and we have some more orders, so if you would like to place an order for a quarter, half or whole lamb box get in touch! I'm thinking lamb chops for tea tonight ... what would you have?