This picture sums up yesterday.

900 stalwarts braved the cold and the rain to come to our Open Farm Sunday.

The band Rock, Stock and Basil were fabulous, the food and drinks great and we couldn't have done it without our marvellous band of intrepid and wonderful helpers.

Thank you everyone for coming and for helping.

More pictures and reports will follow later this week however this remains a very busy week and we had two more educational visits today - the Women's Institute this morning and Offley First School Reception class this afternoon.

'Murial' is ready

'Murial' is finished -
and next we have to prepare all the parts for the collage including the wool which has been specially machine washed in a pillowcase for health and safety reasons.

The photos show how I gathered the wool from a self shedding Wiltshire Horn sheep earlier this year into a bag.

The sheep was shedding naturally and I just pulled it off into a sack.

Put into a pillowcase for machine washing.

Washed in a machine at 30' with modern detergent not once but TWICE to 'cleanse' the wool for small children to handle.

Then laid out in the garden to dry in the wind and the sun.

Hopefully, we will have lots of happy children on Sunday making woolly sheep for the collage

the preparation goes on

The brilliant thing about Open Farm Sunday is not only do we get to meet lots of people who want to learn about how their food is produced but also the farm has an annual clean and tidy up.

As I write this Darek is painting the inside of the educational buildings, now the next stage of renovations are almost done. I am off to the Cash n' Carry to get supplies for feeding and watering all the helpers on Sunday.

Tonight we will be continuing with the mural, and all sorts of fiddly jobs like printing and laminating notices such as car park, etc.

Phone calls are pouring in with questions about access and parking and it seems like a lot of people are already planning to come and enjoy themselves.

BBC Three Counties radio will also be coming on Sunday morning.

Adam Henson on Open Farm Sunday

Here is Adam's video all about Open Farm Sunday.

The publicity hots up

As we continue to prepare the premises, and keep up with all the routine farm work too, the national promotional campaign run by LEAF is well under way.

It is very exciting as LEAF have even listed us as one of their farming heroes.

As well as our radio slot next Sunday I have just had an email to inform us that Offley Hoo is also featured on Page 16 in the Sunday Telegraph Life supplement in an article promoting next weekend's Open Farm Sunday.

We will have 4 pigs with piglets of various ages on show. Some pigs are due for weaning next week, some are 6 weeks old.
However some piglets are very new and very cute: Ginger, who was named last year on Open Farm Sunday by a visitor, farrowed a few days ago and her sister Apricot is due to give birth in the next 36 hours. Pictures will follow later this week.

We will also have cows with calves, and sheep with lambs as well as a sheep shearing demo.

This photo is of our beef animals and some replacement heifers for the herd.

There are two Longhorn cross Simmental cattle in this picture, can you guess which 2?

On the radio - next Sunday 12th June

Yesterday Elinor Goodman and Emma, the producer, came to Offley Hoo. They interviewed Jon in his role as BBC Farmer of the Year and asked us both all about Open Farm Sunday.

A fifteen minute programme called 'On your farm' will be broadcast early 06.35 on Sunday 12th June, or use the 'listen again' button later on.

This photograph of some former arable land reverted back to grass was taken by Diane Armitage. Poppies are an arable weed and drought does not affect them. As soon as the fencing is complete sheep will be put on to eat it down to encourage the grass to grow.

MUSIC!

We are very grateful to Rock, Stock and Basil from Baldock for agreeing to play for us on Open Farm Sunday.
The play list looks great and will be guaranteed to get all the children dancing in the barn.

Update on the ewe which was attacked by an unknown dog in Kings Walden park. She is recovering well after a lot of careful nursing and modern veterinary medicine. The cost to the farm about £100.00, cost to the ewe terrible pain and suffering.

The blog will be updated almost daily now with the run up to Open Farm Sunday in 9 days time.

5am start

An early start today at 5 am to send pigs and lambs to the abattoir.

The butcher is making a start next week on all the sausages and burgers for Open Farm Sunday. They are made in advance and frozen otherwise the workload is simply too much the week before with fresh meat to prepare to sell on the day.

We only have 3 lambs left from last year now, two are already reserved for a good customer and the last one will be cut and sold as fresh meat on 12th June.

Meanwhile the drought goes on, it brings back memories of 1976 but as Jon says he was just a lad then, and the endless summer was great as he had no responsibilities beyond himself, and certainly no farm to run!

There is talk of high prices for corn this year which are very misleading as the yields will be very, very low unless we have significant rain and soon.

Your food from our fields

The milling wheat grown here at Offley Hoo is sold to Hovis who turn it in to bread flour and or bread.






Offley Hoo wheat.

This year Hovis have asked Jon to grow their seed wheat. This will mean a better price for the seed and if all goes well Jon will produce enough A C Barrie [ the variety of wheat] of seed for other farmers to sow on an area the size of Epping Forest.






Home baking with Hovis wheat flour and local flour grown in the Chilterns by a friend of ours Virginia Deradour of Wren Davis Ltd.

Virginia is a great ally and champion of education in the countryside especially for school children. She will be helping us on Open Farm Sunday and selling her flour on the day too.

Thanks to all our helpers & sponsors

Preparations are underway for the annual OPEN FARM SUNDAY event.

In order to make the day successful for all our visitors we rely heavily on help from family, staff, friends, neighbours and a whole host of other agricultural professionals and national sponsors.

To date, we'd particularly like to thank WARBURTONS and WEETABIX for agreeing to send us products to display and use on the day to tell the tale of Great British Farming.

We will do our best to acknowledge everyone on here as our preparations progress. Today we have a site meeting to work out what is going where and to double check all the new health and safety requirements for public access.

The picture is from last year's event - Jon demonstrating cream separation to an enthusiastic audience.

Disappointing results

We had disappointing results for the scanning yesterday. The sheep flock scanned with an average of 125%. After we subtract the barren ewes the figure improves to 146%. This is lower than we hoped for but the combination of a lot of young sheep to breed from, called shearlings, and the terrible weather in November & December has lowered our percentage considerably.
Four weeks of snow and ice in the first 4 weeks of the breeding cycle was not good for profligacy. Some of these 'barren' ewes may actually have been in-lamb but the tiny developing foetus can be re-absorbed in times of hardship as a survival mechanism for the ewe.

On a more positive note we are busy planning our annual Open Farm Sunday event on 12th June 2011 from 11am to 4pm.

Leno & Gloria branch out

Here are Leno and Gloria with their delicious deli and cheeses at our Open Farm Sunday on 13th June this year at the mini-market.

Since retiring from the Kings Walden Post Office earlier this year they are now branching out and from today will be at Hitchin Market, just opposite the fish stall on Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays.

We wish them well and will be down to buy some Black Bomber cheese just as soon as we can!

OPEN FARM SUNDAY photos

Here are a few of our OPEN FARM SUNDAY photos. More will be added soon.
(Copyright Victoria Walton 2010)
Please scroll down for additional entries with the OFS competition results.

The past and the present - two tractors - a modern John Deere with a 6m seed drill and an old Grey Ferguson




Bread by Quotidian in Hitchin















Goats cheese from Wobbly Bottom Farm













Our tractor and trailer rides proved very popular this year. Next year we hope to have to have 2 trailers on the go.

The colouring competition winners

Here are our winners from our annual OPEN FARM SUNDAY colouring competition. We are having a little bit of difficulty reaching everyone to tell them about their success!



Here is the list of winners:
11+
1st: Ashley Davies age 12
2nd: Holly Pitts
3rd: Cameron Dougall age 11

8 - 10
1st: Sophie Humphries age 10
2nd: Chantel age 8
3rd: Millie Kitchener age 9

5 - 7
1st: Cara Beth Goriup age 5
2nd: Bethan age 5
3rd: Georgina Pilkington age 7

Under 4
1st: Imogen Sutton age 4
2nd: Jacob age 4
3rd: Matilda Grainger age 2

Highly Commended on the Day: Edward Shaw and Kathy Linfield

If you have not already been contacted or received your prize then please use the farm website to make contact.

We are almost ready, see you later!

We hope to see many visitors later today.

We need to say a big THANKYOU to all our staff, friends and volunteers as well as our sponsors as without all this wonderful help this event would simply not be possible.

Ruby the sow, is still a lady-in-waiting but perhaps she will have her piglets this afternoon!

The hog roasts are roasting and the final details are being put in place right now. See you at 12 noon.

Well known farming personality endorses OFS

Jimmy Docherty launches Open Farm Sunday

Competition time

We are having our children's colouring competition again this year on Open Farm Sunday 13th June 12 - 4pm.

To enter download and print the picture from here on the DairyCo website and bring it on the day. Please remember to write your name, address and age on the back in case you win and are not present!
There will be more copies available on the day to colour in if you forget.

Judging will be at 3.15pm on the day, and the Judge's decision is final.

Age groups:
4 and under
5 - 7 years
8 - 10 years
11+ years


Only ONE entry per child is allowed. Multiple entries will be discounted.

Preparing for our OPEN DAY

Plans are underway for this year's Open Farm Sunday Event.
We hope to make it even bigger and better than last year.

Please keep checking back for more info.

As growers of wheat for Warburtons we are hoping to be able to offer breadmaking demonstrations as part of the experience on the day and these photographs are from a school visit last week with the children all trying their hands at kneading & then shaping dough.