Farming Friends

We have cattle on our farm, however all the breeds we keep - charolais, limousin, blonde d’aquitaine and saler are originally from abroad. This got me thinking about which cattle breeds are native to the United Kingom? (more…)

I am not trying to sway the votes by doing this, it’s just that I do feel a bit sorry for geese because I have noticed that out of all the farm animals listed in my favourite farm animal poll, geese are the only category not to have a vote from the 42 votes so far.

To convince you that I am not trying to rig the voting, I must stress that geese are not my favourite farm animal, but someone out there must love these waddling waders.

Here are a few photographs that might tempt you!

So has that tempted you to vote for geese as your favourite farm animal, if so visit the poll in the sidebar and place your vote now!

Click on the image below to visit Amazon.co.uk to find out more about this book or visit one of the Farming Friends Bookshops.

Mystery Animal Puzzle 

What is an arable crop?

An arable crop is a plant (cereal, fruit or vegetable) that is cultivated for food or other uses, on ploughed land.

How many arable crops can you name? Can you name 30 or more?

Have a go at naming arable crops in the contact form below and the reader who names the most will win a prize. As contestants enter I will let you know the score to beat. You may enter more than once if you wish! Enter by filling in your name, email address and listing all the arable crops you can name. Good Luck. Score to beat is…….41.

Click on the image below to visit Amazon.co.uk to find out more about this book or visit one of the Farming Friends Bookshops.

• A dairy breed.
• Black and white coats.
• Produces high volumes of milk.
• Friesians originate from North Holland.
• This breed of cattle can also be bred for meat as the males are muscular and produce lean meat.
• Friesians are similar to the holstein breed of cattle.

Click on the image below to visit Amazon.co.uk to find out more about this book or visit one of the Farming Friends Bookshops.

• The gestation period of a gilt or sow is usually 3 months, 3 weeks and 3 days (roughly 112-115 days).

I am hoping my gilts are in pig and will have piglets at the end of October. By my calculations they should be two thirds of the way through and have approximately 6 weeks before they farrow, if they are pregnant. That gives me, the novice breeder, just six weeks to prepare for the farrowing and the possibility of raising piglets.

Any advice or tips on preparing for farrowing, farrowing and raising piglets would be welcomed.

Click on the image below to visit Amazon.co.uk to find out more about this book or visit one of the Farming Friends Bookshops

The Farming Friends ‘foto’ of the month competition seems to be becoming very popular as another entry hit my email this morning. The photograph was sent by TopVeg, so thanks Topveg.

It looks like TopVeg have been up close to some wasps to get this photograph of a wasp nest. I hope you didn’t get stung in the name of photography!!

If you like taking photographs then why not enter our Farming Friends ‘Foto’ Of The Month Competition.

The photographs need to have a farming theme and can include the farming landscape, farm animals, farm machinery, farming life or nature and wildlife on and around a farm.

Send your photographs by email keeping the photograph attachment to a size of about 600 x 400 pixels. Please supply some details about the photograph - the name of the person who took the photograph, when and where it was taken and what is happening in the photograph. The winning ‘Foto’ will be posted at the beginning of the following month, so you have up to the end of the month to enter. Go check out the other entries now and also don’t forget the photograph caption competition which can be found on the Photograph Competitions page aswell.