Pigloos!

A delivery of “Pigloo’s” arrived this month to provide mobile field shelters for the sows and piglets which spend their entire lives outside in paddocks. These “pigloo’s” are moved about with a new contraption made for us by Angus Boden-Smith at Pittarthie Farm – the “Pigloo crane”. Angus has been invaluable to us – helping to manufacture some brilliant pieces of equipment to make life easier and more efficient on the farm.

Playing with water is everyone’s favourite pastime… This month we have dug a new pond at Bowhouse on the cliff to encourage waders and provide habitat for Newts, Frogs and Water Voles. Finding an old railway drain from the East Neuk Main Line (removed after the Beeching Review) we have a great feed to the pond and water levels took only a few hours to reach full.

Thanks to W. Walker transport this week, we have taken delivery of more new Lincoln Red heifers and bulls – direct from the “Golden Triangle” on the Lincolnshire Wolds. The herds which have provided these lovely cattle have a combined age of over 500 years with the same breed. So, if you are looking for something a little “aged” – do visit the Butchery at Bowhouse, where we are now able to provide the first Lincoln Red Meat Boxes. The opportunity to but a share of a whole carcase, Sophie is dividing up a whole beast into boxes which enables you to purchase something very special and try something which is not only rare, but delicious.

Jess Rose Young has opened a pop-up-café at Bowhouse in the Mill House Café. With access to the amazing produce from Bowhouse, she has a changing menu on a weekly basis and when it is gone- it’s gone – so be quick. Engineering a lunch stop at Bowhouse has become something of an art for us on the estate!

Dave has been busy over the past few wees on a new experiment – making compost from woodchip and cattle manure. The idea is to make a product with higher nutrient value and better soil improving properties than the two ingredients alone. A science more than an art – the process involves watching a temperature gauge in the pile religiously and turning the pile if it gets too high or low.  A steaming pile of muck is turning into valuable compost at Lochty and we look forward to assessing its effect on crops at harvest.