Being able to grow and harvest our own crops is a truly satisfying experience – although being at the mercy of the weather can be frustrating at times! In this area the farming community has a saying that hay time always starts after Doune and Dunblane Show – which is the first weekend in July.
We have our hay and haylage stacked away for the winter now and as the hectic hay season passes we are still hard at work ensuring the paddocks are kept clean from ragwort and topped when necessary. Field maintenance is crucial to ensuring paddocks are producing good quality grass as horses are not the best of grazers. We recently purchased a few sheep who graze the grass properly and keep down some of the larger weeds which tend to appear throughout the summer months.
The sheep are very adept at being able to pass under electric fences to move onto fresh grass paddocks whenever they wish and the horses seem completely unfazed when they see them coming to graze alongside them.
People have been enjoying some fab hacks through the forestry commission woods at Gartmorn Woods. We are spoiled for choice when it comes to hacking and all can be done straight from the livery with no need for a horse box. Lets hope for some more nice weather to come in before the nip in the air takes hold.