Most farmers have working dogs, which in most cases are Border Collies. These animals work extremely hard and all they want to do is please their master. Due to Health and Safety reasons our dogs have to be kept away from the visitors, so they are out on the farm early in the morning and again when the visitors have gone home. Most working dogs round up sheep and cattle, but my two dogs like to put the chickens and ducks away at night and also love to tease any escaping goats. The goats simply don’t want a dog to direct them back into the pen, so they give the girls a hard time trying to head butt them. Unfortunately we lost our "old girl" Jade, as she developed a tumour on her stomach and our vet decided that it would be kinder to put her down. At least you can do that with an animal to prevent them suffering. Now, poor Sky is constantly looking out for her mate.
Over the last few months we have been targeted by petty thieves - a very young rabbit was taken from its pen by a visitor, and unfortunately it would have been too young to survive without some loving care and attention. Let’s just hope that’s what it was given in its new home! When we did our regular inspection on the fire extinguishers, we were surprised to find that someone had even taken a few of these!
Calves are no different to humans and sometimes they go down with viruses. We had a batch of calves that looked completely healthy one day, then all of sudden 6 of them fell ill all at the same time. We went to feed them and found all 6 of them flat on the floor gasping for air, so we called in the vet as it's extremely rare to see a bunch of animals to go down this quick. After dosing them up with a bucketful of antibiotics and enhancers, they gradually made a full recovery. The blood test proved inconclusive, leaving it a complete mystery why these calves were so poorly. I'm pleased to report that they’re all fit and healthy now, and the vet has presented me with a bill for over £1000 for her troubles!
Our goats are travelling all across the country at the moment, with enquiries coming from as far as Scotland and North Wales. As our kids are hand-reared, we are finding that smallholders like them as they are easy to manage. Lots of people request them to go in with ponies to keep their old pony company, but what they don’t realise is that goats do have a habit of chewing on the pony’s tail until there is no hair left at all! Others buy them as lawn mowers, but find that they will demolish the garden without touching any of the grass! One family has purchased two of our stronger goats to pull a cart around their garden.
Well, after the school holidays, we had to check that Father Christmas was going to visit the farm again this year, so we called him up. He says that he would like a quiet corner on the farm and that he enjoyed having the animals close by him. He did have a grumble about the turkeys being a bit too loud next to his house last year, so it looks like we’ll have to move all the straw out of the Straw Den to accommodate him once again.
The new term will bring a different group of students to the farm; some with severe learning difficulties and others with physical disabilities. Brockenhurst College have a group that are going to help with some of our maintenance projects and Southampton College are sending two groups to assist with the animal-related projects (that’s another way of saying mucking out!). Great Oaks school is targeting social skills for their students, and are using the animals as an aid for the students to learn how to communicate. It’s always a challenge taking these students on, but it is soon rewarded by the enthusiasm that they put into their work; even if only one or two of these students find full-time employment after completing the course, it's got to be worth it.
Because we have had so many people enquiring if we sell animal housing, we have linked up with a family company in Devon who make Poultry houses and rabbit hutches, and even stables and field shelters. It’s nice to deal with a family who are passionate about making quality goods and deliver good old-fashioned values!
Hope to see you soon. Farmer Bryan.  

TINY TEARAWAYS & A BIG INSPECTION

The Micro pigs are undergoing an extensive training programme at the moment, as Conner spends any spare minute that he has encouraging them to sit, stay and walk on. That’s the easy bit, because when it comes to going for a walk with their brand new harnesses attached, Thelma decides to turn left, Louise goes to the right, and poor Conner ends up on the floor! Although these little pigs are small, they are very strong—and they have very determined little characters. You have to give him his due, Conner he does not give up too easily, which is just as well. Lola our Pygmy goat kid, who is being hand reared at the farm, has been a great hit with all the visitors, especially when she goes on one of her ‘walkabouts’. Kim has taught her how to jump over bales and do backward flips, I’m convinced that it won’t be long before this goat will be found in the Tearoom helping herself to ice creams! She is going to find it hard when she has to join the rest of the Pygmy goat herd and become a real goat. We had to decide when was the best time to shear the sheep, so as Tim sheared away at the Grey Faced Dartmoors on a hot and sunny afternoon, we thought that we had timed it just right, but two days later it rained and the wind blew. The poor old ewes where not impressed, nor was Tim when he took the fleeces to be weighed and priced, to be told that they weighed in at 5kgs each, which was valued at 55 pence a kg! I am convinced that the rain will go away in time for the summer holidays—well, we’ve all got to stay optimistic, haven’t we?! The Tourist Board does an annual inspection on most tourist attractions each year, this is called a VAQAS report, where a mystery shopper visits the site, then gives a detailed report on what he finds on his visit, including good and negative comments. Well, this year on his visit, it was probably the wettest day of the summer with over 5omm of rain falling. The car park was afloat, and the Farm itself was soaking. I was dreading the moment when we met up to discuss his report. He started by saying: “Why would so many people want to visit a farm on such a wet and horrible day?” He then pointed out that all the visitors that he had followed were so busy feeding all the animals, and having a good time, that they didn’t even notice that it was raining outside. In fact the assessor passed us with flying colours, stating that he will be back again before too long as a visitor..….phew! It’s not very often that you hear me swear about our visitors, but we recently had some of a very unwelcome type. A few weeks ago a group of youngsters decided to visit the farm in the early hours of the morning, break into the soft play area, and wreck the vending machine to steal its contents. Not satisfied with just smashing the glass, they then kicked the broken glass around the play area, and then urinated around the walls. I have suggested to the police that when these youngsters are caught (we have them on camera), I will be only too happy to provide some community service placements for them! We are hand-rearing a New Forest foal, as its mother died of colic after eating several bags of lawn mowing cuttings that someone left in a car park in the forest. The heated grass would have fermented in the animal’s stomach and caused a long and agonising death for the poor mare. I am pleased to say that her foal, Toby has adapted to calf milk substitute, and is now looking extremely healthy and enjoying his stay at Longdown. He has made friends with Billy on one side, and the donkeys on the other side, and is really quite a little character. See him in the stables. What a build up and lots of planning, and all for a three day show. Yes, the New Forest Show is nearly here, and as we have been asked to run the animal tent again, we have spent lots of time considering how we can improve the display that we had last year. We are trying to make it as interactive as possible, and gradually our plans are forming together. It looks like it’s going to be a really good show, so please call in and see us, we might even get you helping out! School holidays start on 24th July, so we have plenty of events planned, starting with The Creature Teachers and their amazing animals on Friday 3rd August. My favourite is the beautiful barn owl who will sit patiently on the visitors’ outstretched hands for a wonderful photo opportunity. Check our website for further details of all events.

A Baby Bonanza and Duck Decisions

We have enjoyed a bit of a baby bonanza these last few weeks: Bubble and Squeak, our two Kune Kune sister pigs, have given birth to a total of 15 piglets. They decided that they wanted to share their litters, so all the piglets take turns on both mums at mealtimes, and as piglets like to suckle every 45 minutes day and night, the mums are delighted to share the burden. Our Pygmy goats have been busy delivering their kids, which have produced a big ‘ahh factor’ for the visitors. Even I would admit that they are very cute! Unfortunately, one of the Mums was immune to her kid’s cute factor, so Kim and Rachael have had to step in as surrogate mothers, and train the little one to drink powdered milk from the bottle. Jack’s first midwifery practice came sooner than he expected: we heard a panic stricken voice come over the radio: “I think Kerry cow’s waters have broken”. When there was no response, another call: “The feet are showing”, then in desperation, the next call came through: “HELP”. By this time, Kerry had pushed her 85lb baby boy out with very little effort, and Jack was looking over it like any proud dad. By the time the rest of the staff arrived, he was rolling his sleeves down explaining that he had managed this one all on his own - easy work, no problem! Not to be left out, the grumpy geese have also produced four little goslings, who are being guarded by a very protective Daddy—as Kim found out the other day! We sell quite a few ducks to people who either like duck eggs, or have a pond that they’d like to stock. Recently, a gentleman and his wife arrived to discuss the purchase of one male duck, as their old duck had been taken by the fox. They wanted to be sure that the duck was going to settle in with its new wife, so we explained how to introduce them, what to feed and what not to feed them, and the sort of housing required. The discussion then went into how to protect them from the fox. After an hour of intense questioning, the couple went off to discuss the proposed purchase with their neighbours, and to our surprise, the following morning the couple returned with their neighbours, and a list of new questions. They requested that we went through all the facts again, and after another hour of debate, they had a vote to decide if they wished to purchase the duck. We were asked to count the votes – all four. I am pleased to say that the vote was unanimously in favour of taking the duck home with them. Currently over 500 school children are visiting the Farm each week. Loaded down with their packed lunches and welly boots, they skip into the farm like newborn lambs, however by the time that they have had their 2½ hour tour, they are on their knees, struggling to carry the now empty lunch boxes back to the coach. It wouldn’t surprise me if half of them are asleep by the time that they reach the A35! Our local animal feed supplier, Fred Norris, has taken early retirement at the age of 95, so Dawn and I thought it would be nice to go out for lunch with him. What a gentleman he is still. I have known him since I was knee high (that’s just a few years ago), and we spent a few hours reminiscing about the good old days when farming was the main occupation in the forest. He really could tell a tale or two about the local farmers, and the antics that they got up to when they were young - things haven’t changed much have they? We wish Fred a very happy retirement - he tells me that he is thinking of breeding rabbits in his spare time……..! There has been a lot of concern over Billy this last month or so, as he spends a lot of his time lying down. He is a great favourite here at the Farm, and is much loved by staff and visitors alike. (And yes, OK, I have a soft spot for him too). We have put a sign on his stable stating that he is getting old, which is true, and this is why he is resting more these days. However, once we removed his new shoes, he galloped out into the field like this year’s foal – he is a bit of a drama queen really…... Finally, These irresistible twosome are our Call duck ducklings that recently hatched. They too, have the ’ahh factor’

Down on the Farm

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