Articles

Summer seems to be here at last and even our ducks look slightly bleached from the sun. The tomato and cucumber plants in our polytunnel are starting to grow tall. I seem to be spending most of my time watering and weeding. Onions, salad crops, beetroot and radishes are all growing well.
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This month I have been very busy planting up the Castlefarm garden and polytunnel. My onions sown last month are now clearly visible in organised green lines. Now that I can see them I can hoe the onion bed before the weeds take hold. As an organic farm we cannot use weed killer or chemicals. I find the best method of keeping down weeds is literally spending 5-10 minutes each day hoeing.
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At Castlefarm we now have 26 calves out on grass. We feed them with the mobile feeder once a day and are slowly weaning them off milk. Calving is dragging on at this stage and we are still waiting for 12 cows to calve. This month we are taking a few weekends off before AI begins in May.
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Jenny Young is very busy at Castlefarm, with new calves and early growth in the gardens. At Castlefarm the majority of our dairy herd has calved down, resulting in up to 40 calves to feed twice a day. It also takes longer to milk with 71 cows now milking in the parlour.
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Jenny Young and the team at Castlefarm are busy preparing for spring – and watching TV in bed...The arrival of February sees the birth of lots of calves (approx 70) at Castlefarm. All our cows are indoors full time. The herd is split into two, the milkers and the calvers.
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January is a quiet time at Castlefarm. Our main work on the farm is tending the cows. They will remain indoors until they calve from February, and they need to be fed silage and bedded with straw daily. In terms of milking and our supply of organic milk, the spring calving herd has been dried off. They will begin calving in February.
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Castlefarm is starting to get very festive looking. We decorated the farm shop last week and nearly all our organic turkeys have been sold. These come from the Colchesters’ organic farm in Kilkenny. I have also ordered Irish hams from O’Neill Foods, cranberry sauce from Gees Jams, candles from Derrynine candles, potatoes from John O’Brien, confectionery from Wicklow Fine Foods and lots more yummy festive Irish food.
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The Castlefarm orchard looks bare. We spent the last few weeks of October picking quince, apples, pears and hazelnuts. This month I will be busy transforming this fruit into jams and chutneys. We planted our orchard four years ago, with fruit trees from Seedsavers and English’s Nursery.
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Autumn has come in so quickly this year, and this has brought us our first autumn calf this week, as well as our first season’s honey. In the orchard our apples will be collected very soon and be transformed into apple juice.
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Castlefarm is thriving. In our pastures, the organic grass is growing a little slower than we would like but clover is plentiful. This is good news for our cows, as well as the bees that are busy feeding on the flowers. Our oats are nearly ready for harvesting, as is our arable silage.
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