Field Notes: June at Longbrook Farm

A New Calf

The highlight of the month? That would be Zig-Zag.

In early June, while out shepherding, I spotted something unexpected in the grass with Lottie and Reggie in tow, a tiny, wobbly calf beside her mum, Wikolia. She was only a few hours old, still damp, and trying to find her feet. We waited to see her suckle and then quietly left them to it. Wikolia’s proven to be a fantastic first-time mother and part of the joy of Longhorns is that they rarely need intervention when calving (although I do recall Sam being shoulder deep helping one one who was struggling 15 minutes before Reggie's christening).

Lottie named her Zig-Zag on the spot, and Reggie seemed equally thrilled by pointing and saying "baby, baby" (which made a nice change from him repeatedly shouting "Warrior!" whenever we're in with the Longhorns.

Her arrival felt especially special because we’d expected more calves around this time, but 90% of the Longhorns mysteriously aborted back in November. So to see a healthy calf safely born was a proper boost. The cows who have been running with Warrior are being scanned in July, so hopefully we'll have positive news to report.

Silage Season (and Very Dry Fields)

We took the first cut of grass silage off the fields around Longbrook this month, not a bumper harvest, thanks to the dry weather, but enough to make a start on the winter feed stores.

Luckily, the maize is looking strong. There's an old adage, "Knee high by July" and we've hit that milestone already. It’s powering on despite the lack of rain, and we’re hoping for a good cut in October to balance out the lighter grass yields.

Beef Boxes Are Nearly Back!

You might have spotted on Instagram that we’re working hard behind the scenes to bring our beef boxes back, and we’re nearly there.

At the moment, we’ve got some beautiful Hereford beef hanging in our brand-new on-farm chiller, where it will stay for a minimum of 28 days to develop all that lovely flavour. It should be ready to go by mid-July, and we’ll be sharing more details on how to order very soon.

We’re doing things a little differently this time — our own butchery set-up, new packaging, and even more care going into every box. We can’t wait for you to try it.

Thanks for being here and following along. I’ll be back soon with July’s Field Notes, where hopefully I'll have a beef update, we'll be mucking out and I'll be able to give you good news about the Longhorn cows.

Until then,

Emma x