Pitch Up! 2024

Attending the Scottish Organic Conference at Ingliston, one of the speakers, Christina Dimetto from UK Organic gave a brilliant analysis of the work which the organic market research team have been gathering. The report below is both surprising and encouraging, as we learned that increased interest in human health, environment animal welfare are the main drivers for consumers choosing organic over conventional food. Our pre-conception that organic food was chosen by wealthier people is incorrect and the majority are young, renters on low and middle income families. The report can be accessed here 

Our cows and heifers have all been Pregnancy scanned. Stevie Rolf comes in with his sci-fi helmet and waves about the scanner, then tells us with great confidence which cows are in calf, when they will calf and if there are twins. This year the scanning was significantly better than last, with our own home bred animals scanning exceptionally well and our bought in cows less so. What it does show, is that our home bred cattle are acclimatising to life at Balcaskie and thriving on the land which is unique on every farm.

The livestock team spent a day at Morden Institute looking very closely at animal poo. It was the highlight of the year so far and they came back with so much enthusiasm, that Ewan took the microscope home, found some fresh sheep poo and sat at the kitchen table counting worm eggs. The purpose of this exercise is to monitor parasitic worm numbers in the gut of animals to build a picture of those who can tolerate worm burden and still perform, and those who have low levels of worms and seem to be affected by it. We will select the most resistant animals to breed from and so breed in resilience to our herd and flock.

 Having been very discouraging about our Fava beans earlier in the season – the recent superb dry spell and winds meant our crop was ripe(ish) and they were harvested in the last days of October. They might not have broken any records for yield or quality – but in reality, we didn’t expect them to grow and the thin bean crop was a bonus for the clover/grass understory we planted, so we now have a great field to graze over winter. Not textbook, but not a disaster.

Tony Vandyke from Vandyke Bros Coffee, has moved into his newly renovated unit at Balcormo. After exactly a year since we launched Pitch-Up! 2023, we met, discussed, planned, converted and he got going. We have launched Pitch-Up! 2024 again this year, joined by another 5 farms across the UK. This year we are focusing on attracting some specific businesses to join our farming rotation and if you know anyone or want to run either a mobile dairy or mobile poultry operation – please do get in touch.