Farmer Bryan

Down on the Farm

2011-03-23T11:24:00.000-07:00

Naomi House visit local farm

One of the children enjoys playing with baby chick

A lot of respite activities take place within Naomi House or jacksplace for example hydrotherapy, music therapy and messy play. However it is not uncommon for respite activities to take place outside the hospices, the most recent of which was at a local Farm.

During one particularly busy week in Naomi House all of the children, accompanied by staff visited Longdown activity farm just outside the New Forest.

An impromptu visit, the children instantly received a very warm welcome from all of the staff at the farm and nothing was too much trouble. To their delight the staff kindly shut off an area of the petting zoo to the public so the children could have it all to themselves. This gave them a priceless opportunity to play and feed the animals, including goats, calves and baby chicks. Many of the children also jumped at the chance to feed the horses carrots, which the farm provided.

Visiting Longdown activity farm was a valuable experience for all of the children and for many of them was like nothing they had done before. It was also a great opportunity for the children to have fun with their friends in the safe surroundings of the care team. All of the farm's facilities had fantastic disabled access which enabled each child to roam throughout without a worry.

Around 90% of the funding Naomi House relies on is provided by its supporters whether it be individuals, companies or volunteers. This is just one of the examples of what their hard work helps to achieve.

All the children and Naomi House staff thoroughly enjoyed their morning at Longdown activity farm and are keen to pay them another visit in the near future. Claire Floyd is a member of the play team and helped to organise the farm visit. She said, “All the children had a great time and the staff there we’re all fantastic, they could not have been more helpful

Open again

2011-02-16T13:07:00.001-08:00

What a winter! Snow freezing conditions followed by more than our fair share of rain, without exception all our animals were grateful in having a roof over their heads during the coldest days, even Billy (the Shire) was reluctant to gallop round the feild on several occasssions,the goats simply refused to take one stepoutside.

A major part of our winter has been taken up by hostingofficials from The Health and Safety Executive andvarious other decision makers. who have had the delicate task of deciding if children should be permitted to contact with animals at open farms, after hours of discussions and debates, throughout the country, I am pleased to be able to confirm that commonsense has prevailed, and the entire group supports open farms fully, as long as they are prepared to follow a strict code of practice, which is already fully adhered to at Longdown Activity farm, so in a nutshell it is business as usual, you will notice a few changes, such as more hand wash pointsand the removal of 'Hand Gels' and some animals will now have to be doubled fenced, we fully supporrt the HSE's decision.

Our Grey Faced Dartmoor sheep are dropping their lambs at an alarming rate, we didn't want them to start until March, but it seems that the Ram was in a hurry, so far all the ewes have produced twins, and all mums are doing an excellent job in looking after the, meaning that we have not had to bottle feed any as yet, however we now have 50 plus goat kids needing their bottles of milk twice a day, due to the colder weather we have kept the smaller kids under heat lampsuntil they are strong enoughto join the others.We are often asked why we do not encourage bottle feeding of lambs, yet we pratice baby goat feeding, the reason is simply that it is extremley difficult sourcing lambs from flocks that are completley free of Toxoplasmosis, therefore they would incur a high risk to pregnant mums,in our opinion it's simply not worth taking that chance.
We are waiting for Hannah (large white pig) to produce her litter, shedoes have a habit of pretending to be close, so that she is moved into the Farrowing unit, here she gets special treatment and a few extra nuts a day, over her last 5 births she has been 3 weeks late, possibly just making the most of her home comforts.

The first batch of calves have arreived, 15 Aberdeen Angus cross calves, yes they are the all black ones with eyelashes that all the girls love, and Becky who looks after the calves is already insisting that we keep the 'cutest one'

Hope to see you soon

Farmer Bryan

Summer has gone!

2010-09-09T05:40:00.000-07:00

The rush of the school holidays is now over, on some days it seems very quiet at the farm, however there is still lots to do for the farm staff, and preparations are underway for our Vintage Rally in October (23rd & 24th)
This is the time of year that we sell on some of our animals, Stevie our Miniature Shetland pony has gone to Basingstoke to keep another small pony company, local farmers are purchasing our 'weaner' pigs to clear the acorns up from their fields.
Peter our Alpaca is in disgrace, not only has he fallen out with his life long companions, now he has started to attack the staff at Longdown, as we enter into his enclosure he comes charging with head down and hissing through his teeth, there is no way that he goes round you, so if you cannot clear a five bar gate, then he will flatten you! Rest assured he is contained in the chicken run at the moment for his and every one elses safety.

Hope to see you soon.

Farmer Bryan

Dorren has calved at last

2010-06-10T11:42:00.000-07:00

Better late than never so they say, Doreen decided to have her calves on Sunday, the furthest area away from the farm as possible (just as awkward as Doreen in the tea room)
She started about 6 in the morning and the first calf poked his head out about 2.30 in the afternoon, then the second one - yes TWINS - appeared by 3 o'clock.
Approximately 7% of cows have twins, these two were 1 male and 1 female, unfortunately it is rare to be able to breed from a female if it's twin to a boy, these are called 'free martins'

Our latest addition of four Highland calves have been a great attraction, especially for those visitors who witnessed me being dragged around the yard by this hairy little monster, determined to get a bottle of milk down it, eventually I gave up after being drenched by the flying bottle, however after a few days of coaxing and swearing, our little friends enjoy their bottles.

Please note that I have borrowed the pictures of the calves as I have not mastered our new camera as yet.

Hope to see you soon.

Pigs galore

2010-06-01T11:30:00.000-07:00

Who said all pigs are pink?
We have just taken on 43 pigs of all colours, some black and white others orange and a few with dots on, what a mixture, these are 'store pigs' our job is to feed them until they weigh about 40 kilograms then other farmers purchase them from us, your job is to feed them for us each day about 12-30,the mucking out is left to Farmer Bryan!

Also today we have had 4 Highland calves delivered in, unfortunately their mothers do not have enough milk to feed them (a common trait with Highland cattle) so our job is to get them used to people and a change from real milk to a milk substitute, not an easy task as they are pretty wild to say the least,patience is a virtue, so they say.
See you soon.
Farmer Bryan

Whats new this week

2010-05-30T08:54:00.000-07:00

Another school holiday already, that means we have been busy stocking up on all the animals, another batch of calves will be arriving this week along with about 60 more pigs!
50 chicks and lots of small rabbits, and guess what even more goats another 40 due in this week.
Guess what Doreen the cow has not produced her calf yet but it will most likely happen this week - never know your luck you might be lucky enough to witness a calf being born.
Pleased to tell you the 'bumpy tractor' rides are back on again.
Lastly the Pony rides are happening every day this week right up to the 6th June.
Hope to see you soon

Dorren still waiting!

2010-04-29T07:25:00.000-07:00

Dorren our large 'fat cow' (yes I am allowed to call her that) is still waiting to have her calf, she is so large that everyone seems to think that she will burst soon!

Most days this week we have hatched lots of ducklings, and to my surprise on Sunday morning 2 goslings popped out of the eggs in the incubator, normally goose eggs take 31 days to hatch but these hatched in 27 days.

The lambs are out in the feilds now with the Highland calves and at last a sign of spring grass coming through, so it will not be long before we turn the cows out as well.

The school parties having been flocking in, St. Deny's Primary school and Copnor's infants certainaly had some real budding farmers with them, these schools were lucky enough to see some ducklings and goslings which had just been hatched, and it's a real picture to see the children's faces as they get close to these little creatures.

Well better get back to work, thanks to all of you who have dropped me a message, hope to see you soon.

Farmer Bryan

Tractor Rides Back on

2010-04-08T11:29:00.000-07:00

The field has dried out enough to allow us to start the tractor rides again, my first trip around the track was a little scary because I had forgotten where the potholes were, pleased to say no one fell off their seats.

All the ewes have had there lambs now and we a gradually getting them out into the field.
The chickens and ducks have suddenly started to lay again, after the cold spell, at least our visitors are able to find lots of eggs in the nest boxes.

Unfortunately 'Mr.Fox' found his way into the goose house and killed one of our female geese, who was sitting on a batch of eggs, I don't mind telling you that I was not very happy, it has also upset the other geese in the pen, so they have come off their eggs as well, as there is not much green food in the woods behind us, the foxes are calling in at the farm after anything that they can find.The goose eggs in the farm shop are selling very well at the moment, as more and more people like to try them.

Hannah our large White sow has produced 8 very cute piglets, and we are including them in the animal handling sessions (subject to how they accept it) we bring them out for short sessions as we do not want to stress them or mum too much.

Doris has calved!

2010-04-04T05:55:00.000-07:00

During the past few weeks our visitors have been amazed of the size of Doris our large Simmental cow, as she is quite a large cow and carrying a 47kg calf inside her, she seemed just too large to move, well at last she has produced a good strong calf, she did need some assistance, so Tim and I gave a little tug with the calving ropes.

There were about 50 visitors watching, all pleased to witness the birth of a strong boy, one lad who stood there watching the whole process very patiently was Mason, so we named the calf after him.

The calf had quite a lot of fluid on it's lungs so we put a piece of straw up it's nose to make it sneeze, which is the quickest way to clear the lungs, then within 30 seconds it's head raised up, and he was breathing naturally.
Mum stimulated him by licking him all over, and within 20 minutes he was up on his feet, a little bit wobbly ( a bit like Farmer Tim on a Saturday night) but soon he was drinking from his mum.
The first milk that the cow produces after calving is called Colostrum, which is vital for the calf to drink in the first few hours after birth, as it's natures way of protecting it from illnesses.

Only 2 cows left to have their calves now, for this season any way.

Easter activities at Longdown Activity Farm

2010-04-02T04:05:00.000-07:00

Easter is normally a busy time for us at the farm, so to ensure that everyone gets a turn, we have stocked up our animal barns.

20 new calves mostly black and white friesians and just a few Belgian Blues, all really keen to drink from the bottles, bearing in mind that each of these calves drink between 5 and 6 litres a day, it means there is plenty to go around for all our visitors, yes that means mums and dads as well.

The goat shed is well stocked with over 100 goat kids eager to be fed, these little fellas drink a litre of milk each day, however on busy days we feed them half bottles and the older goats are allowed extra, so that gives everybody a chance to join in the fun,this activity is still one of the favourites.

Due to the strange weather conditions that we are experiencing, some of the animals are finding it hard to adjust, the ewes are still housed after having their lambs as it is still too wet and cold to put them out into the fields, the chicken stay in their houses during the day as they hate the rain more than the goats, who only venture outside in the sunshine.

Billy our Shire looks quite a state when he comes in from the paddocks in the mornings it looks a s though he has had a mud bath, once back in his stable he is happy to tuck into his breakfast and wait for the first visitor to give him a mint.

Kerry cow is producing so much milk that we have given her another calf to feed, now she is not particularly happy about looking after another one but at least it saves me having to milk her twice a day to remove the surplus milk.

Our pony rides we start again during the holidays. subject to ground conditions, as it would be extremely dangerous to attempt rides if the ponies slip and slide causing the young riders to fall off.

Well lets hope that the sun shines and the old tractor can start jogging around the field again soon.

More arrivals at Longdown

2010-03-25T13:17:00.000-07:00

Despite the wet weather things have been busy at the farm, 40 new baby goats have arrived from Dorset, which has kept Jodie and Kerry busy, as quite a few of them have never drunk from a bottle before, with these kids there are now over 100 little mouths to feed at least 3 times a day!

Kerry our celebrity cow produced a large calf on the 23rd March, she was so proud to perform in front of our animal care students, and now is the proud mum of a 80lb baby girl, any ideas of suitable names would be welcomed.

The chicks have arrived, over 50 day old Warrens and a few ducklings have been cuddled by our school groups this week.

We have caught the thief on camera!

We have noticed that a few loaves of bread were being stolen from the crates left outside the farm shop early in the morning, so we checked the security cameras to see if we could find the culprit and guess what, it was Skye the farm's sheep dog, what was interesting she preferred the 'Cottage loaf' each time, she is now on a strict diet.

Unfortunately it looks like there will no tractor rides for a week or so due to the very wet conditions out in the field.

Fudge has had a baby!

2010-03-09T11:33:00.000-08:00

Fudge our Jersey cow gave birth to a baby girl today, after a 3 hour wait our visitors were rewarded, with being able to watch Fudge produce a bonny 50lb girl.
Amongst our visitors witnessing the event was a Midwife and a Health visitor, so we had lots of comments on comparison's of child births!

We have named the calf as Nahla, after our youngest visitor who was celebrating her first birthday, and was happy to sit in her pram and watch the entire performance without complaining at all.

Also our incubator has been very busy, popping out ducklings, some brown and others yellow.

The Geese have started to lay as well, spring must be officially here, if you have never tried a goose egg, then Wayne has a few in the Farm Produce shop - but they are very limited at the moment.

We will try to get some pictures of our new calf as soon as possible, any visitor's who were present, please post your pictures so others could see.

Many thanks

Farmer Bryan

Down on the Farm

2010-03-05T12:32:00.000-08:00

Good evening, this is a farmer's first attempt to join the moderen world of technology!

I would like to share some of our day to day experiences on our Activity Farm www.longdownfarm.co.uk

Quote of the day:

One of our younger visitors watching a hen laying an egg, shouted to her mum,"Mummy mummy the chicken has just poo'd a real egg!"

If anyone want's to see the lambs being born we have started now two sets of twins and one single, our Grey faced Dartmoors have been obliging and lambed in front of our visitors this week.

Charlotte our Large White sow has produced 10 piglets on the 3rd March, the piglets look cute at the moment all tucked up under their heat lamp.

Hope to hear from you soon.

Farmer Bryan @ Longdown Activity Farm