Slow Life » High Lowscales Farm

The farm is sold at auction

jonathandenby — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 12:10:21 +0000

The farm has been hemorrhaging money. When I bought the farm five years ago my bank manager asked me whether it would “wash its face”. “Of course”, I replied “once I get the hang of things”. The truth must be that I never quite did get the hang of things because the more we did, the more money we lost. Here are two examples of the difference between the dream and reality.
The dream: To keep our pigs outdoors and never subject them to the indignity of being penned inside.
The reality: The pigs became wild. I sold some to a farmer who keeps wild boars and he said my Middle Whites were the wildest creatures he had ever encountered, perfectly capable of jumping a four foot fence.
The dream: To keep a herd of rare-breed Galloway cattle.
The reality: An official from Defra turns up to test the cattle for TB. Two of the cattle show a positive reaction. The official immediately condemns them to death. He ticks a wrong box on the form, so that when they arrive at the abattoir they have to be thrown in the bin. Tests later show that the cattle were perfectly healthy all along. The official is uninterested in offering either an apology or adequate compensation. This has happened twice.

It has been a pleasure working with farmers in the area who, over the generations, have developed a cynicism and resilience which suits them to this life. Today, Ian Walker of Harrison Coward very skillfully extracted a good price for the farm. In the end it has washed its face. I’m left with my Wagyu cattle and a few pigs- and a little more cynicism and realism than I had when I started.

Countryfile

jonathandenby — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 12:37:05 +0000

Countryfile got in touch with me after seeing this blog. They wanted to know if I could really survive without using a supermarket. Good God, is it really so outlandish? I’m sure that Grange isn’t the only small town with no supermarket, but lots of good independent small shops. Living in Grange makes it easy for me to keep my pledge and I was chuffed that Countryfile did some filming in Grange to prove the point.

After Grange we went with Adam Henson to the farm, where I introduced him to my Wagyu catle. It was perishingly cold, but in typical Countryfile fashion we did some cooking outdoors, on a barbeque. Adam tried some Wagyu steak and was suitably impressed – I only hope that mine will turn out to be as good.

After the screening tonight I got an email from Peter Gott, who is well known for teaching Jimmy Doherty to raise pigs- “having seen you on the telly I am reassured that like me you have a wonderful body for radio!”. Never a truer word.

Wagyus- Loving the Cumbrian Winter

jonathandenby — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 11:14:32 +0000

When I did my research on the Wagyus in the province of Kobe in Japan I found them housed in barns in temperatures of more than 100 degrees fahrenheit. Each barn had three enormous fans whose purpose I thought was to cool down the animals until I was told by my Japanese hosts that they were there to blow away the stench of the ammonia, caused by the animal’s urine, which, were it not for the fans would be overpowering in the heat.

Conditions in Cumbria are completely different from those in Kobe. For a start, we have grass on which the cattle can feed- in Kobe they are given grain, which is imported from Canada or Australia (some carbon footprint!). In Kobe the cattle are kept in the barns year round, three to a stall, whereas ours have the freedom of the fells. They run free with the Highlanders, the Galloways and the Blue Greys, all of which are hardy and don’t need shelter whatever the weather. We didn’t know how the Wagyus would take to the great outdoors so I was pleased to see them thriving outside in the bleak midwinter. They have a barn in which they can shelter, but they seem happy to remain with their pals on the fells, whatever the weather.

The Evil that Supermarkets Do

jonathandenby — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 10:03:10 +0000

One of the reasons I started to rear my own meat is that I wanted to be sure what I was eating. Not only that, I wanted to be sure that the animal had been well looked after and that it met a decent end to its life. Last winter I had the rather gruesome experience of following one of my bullocks through the abattoir (see 30th December 2009 for a video of the event – http://www.slow-life.co.uk/2009/12/30/a-kiss-before-dying/) but by the end of it I was reasonably happy that the animal had not suffered unduly. The key to a peaceful end is the fact that the animal is stunned in advance of its being killed- in this way the animal will not suffer any pain. For this reason pre-stunning is a legal requirement in British abattoirs. Unless, that is, you say that God told you to do otherwise. In that case you can get away with slitting the animal’s throat, after which it will remain conscious, screaming, until it drowns in its own blood up to six minutes later. According to the Farm Animal Welfare Council “slaughter without pre-stunning causes very significant pain and distress”.
Woody Allen said that religious rules which govern eating weren’t so much commandments as “advice on how to eat safely in Jerusalem” and its no real business of ours if those who are daft enough to adhere to the dietary requirements of a primitive society keep their habits to themselves. But it’s very much our business if the meat from animals which are killed in this way are routinely supplied to our supermarkets without being labelled as such and without the customer being told. Tesco and others supply this meat as a matter of course and never let on to their customers when they do. They are guilty of many other shameful practices, but this is one of the worst.

The Killer Badgers

jonathandenby — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 08:05:23 +0000

The first thing we did when we began to garden here was to put a deer fence around the garden with a cattle grid at the entrance. Without that the garden simply wouldn’t have got going. But while the cattle grid kept out the deer it was useless with badgers, who just waddled over it, and we quite often saw them doing just that when we returned home late at night. This was potentially a problem as badgers forage for worms and can cause havoc in the process. They are large and powerful animals. We then discovered that they were actually living in our garden- their sett was in the fern garden. But we have been lucky- they forage in the woods behind us and tend to leave the garden alone, although they sometimes make a mess of the lawns.

But whilst I can live happily with badgers in my garden I share the antipathy of all farmers towards them. They carry TB; they infect cattle with TB and are responsible for the slaughter of tens of thousands of cattle each year. On my farm I’ve had two scares, when, after routine tests for TB, cattle have had a positive reaction. In both cases they have been false alarms, but three healthy rare-breed cows have had to be slaughtered and we have been put to immense trouble and expense because of the false readings. In the West Country whole herds of cattle are routinely put down. There is no doubt that badgers are responsible for spreading the disease. Now the new government has had the courage to allow badgers to be killed in the infected areas. The last time this was proposed 47,000 animal lovers complained and the government backed down. This time the government must hold firm.

Our Wagyu Cattle- Looking Magnificent

jonathandenby — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 12:43:18 +0000

The last time I saw Wagyu cattle looking this magnificent was in Kobe, Japan, on a very hot summer’s day. They were in a large barn in temperatures approaching 100 fahrenheit, being cooled by enormous fans, which had the dual purpose of controlling the powerful stench of ammonia. In Japan, this is how Wagyu cattle are kept year round- it is in effect factory farming. In contrast our Wagyus have the freedom of the open field and access to fresh grass rather than the imported grain which is fed to their Japanese counterparts. Today, our English Wagyus, who have been raised from embryos, looked to me to be the picture of health. In three month’s time they will be ready for slaughter- the very first since we began the embryo programme three years ago. We are fortunate in this country that we have the option to give our cattle the freedom of the open fields- unfortunately the Japanese don’t have the choice because they don’t have the land available. Nor do they have the land to grow their own grain, which is why they rely on imports from Australia and Canada. It won’t be long before we find out whether our superior methods of husbandry will lead to superior meat. Now that would be something.

Fighting For A Teat

jonathandenby — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 07:40:34 +0000

The saddleback sow has produced 14 piglets, some of whom have perfect markings. They are all in perfect health, which is surprising considering the amount of work required just to get a hold of a teat. The squealing of the little piglets is almost deafening as they fight for food. Meanwhile the sow adds to the cacophony with her contended grunting.

Marco’s Mating Display

jonathandenby — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 14:52:54 +0000

No-one puts on a better mating display than Marco Pierre White, which is why his name came instantly to mind when I saw our male turkey put on the over-the-top routine seen in this video. Of course, the words “turkey” and “Marco” are now inextricably linked, ever since Marco became the official face of Bernard Matthew Turkeys. Marco had kept his fondness for factory farming a closely guarded secret and I’m sure it took a great deal of money to persuade him to share this passion with the rest of the world. Of course, none of the turkeys on Bernard Matthew’s farms ever see the light of day, so I doubt whether they ever get the chance to indulge in mating displays. Which is something which Marco should perhaps have thought about before he accepted that shed-load of money from Mr Matthews.

The Cattle Auction

jonathandenby — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 09:44:49 +0000

Our Cumberland White bull has been performing his duties with such vigour that the farm is becoming over-stocked. We now have well over 100 head of cattle, including the Wagyus, which is more than a farm of 155 acres can support, what with the sheep,the pigs and the other livestock, so the time has come to sell off the surplus. Which is why we are at the Borderway Auction Mart in Carlisle at a sale of rare breed cattle with twenty of our Galloways and Aberdeen Angus on offer. It’s worth the trip just for the entertainment value of the auctioneer. Each head of cattle takes no more than two minutes to sell, to the sound of a torrent of words from the auctioneer, of which not more than one in twenty is intelligible. As this video shows.ButiIt does the trick. All our cattle find buyers, at prices which made the expedition worthwhile. A good morning’s work, if rather baffling at times.

Shake Them Boobies

jonathandenby — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 08:47:04 +0000

Sometimes an itch just has to be scratched. This Middle White sow has been lying on her side for the last two weeks patiently allowing her litter of nine new-born piglets to feed. On her first taste of freedom there was one thing which she just had to do- scratch that itch. No-one would say that the Middle White is a handsome beast but there was something beautiful in the look of pleasure which spread over her face as that itch got scratched.