January 2024 At Stourton

A new batch of Kiln Dried logs will be ready soon!

We’re getting towards end of our log season. We have a freshly dried batch coming out of kiln shortly and then another at the end of February. These will be the last bags of the season so if you’d like some please either place your order online here or phone Tina in our office on 01507 578236 between 9am-4pm on Monday to Thursday.. Don’t miss out!

Venison – available to order now!

It’s still the weather for comfort food and nothing beats a lasagne on a cold, rainy day. You can use some of our delicious venison mince as an alternative to pork and beef in your lasagne recipe.  Take a look at our venison lasagne recipe here.

If you’re sticking to a healthy eating plan for January then look no further than venison as a great source of protein. It’s incredibly low in fat, and its levels of saturated fat are much lower than in other red meats like beef. It also contains minerals that are good for our health, including iron, phosphorus, potassium, and zinc as well as vitamins B6 and B12, riboflavin, niacin, and thiamine*.

As well as mince, we have a fresh supply of various cuts of venison in our freezer ready for you.

If you’d like to order some please phone Tina in our office on 01507 578236 between 9am-4pm on Monday to Thursday.

*Source: The British Deer Society

Events for 2024

We’re working on our programme of events for 2024 and will confirm events and dates ASAP.  A couple are definitely in the diary and we can tell you about now. The first is the Lincolnshire Wolds Outdoor Festival Activity Day which we are organising . This will be held at Stourton Woods on Sunday 12^th May.  This will be a great event with plenty of have-a-go activities on offer… you’ll find out more about exactly what in the next few weeks.

The Lincolnshire Young Farmers Club will be holding their county rally here on Saturday 18^th May, so if you’re a member of YFC we will look forward to welcoming you here then!

In the meantime keep your eyes peeled on our social media channels and/or sign up for our newsletter to make sure you’re among the first to find out what are plans are.

Around the Estate

Like the rest of the UK we have been rather battered by the recent (10!) storms.  This has added to our usual winter workload on the estate and clearing up debris, branches and trees is a constant job at the moment. We’re looking forward to some spring-like settled weather soon….please!

On the Farm

Perhaps unsurprisingly I will start this blog mentioning the weather! We have had 10 named storms during the current ‘cropping year’; Agnes in September 2023, Babet in October, Ciaran and Debi in November, Elin, Fergus and Gerrit in December, and Henk, Isha and Jocelyn in January 2024. As mentioned in previous blogs this has made things incredibly tricky to manage on farm.

We have however now had some more settled weather and have been able to lift some more sugar beet…. There is a ‘but’ here though! Having lifted some, we were then ‘frozen out’ (the beet lifting machine couldn’t penetrate the frozen ground) for a week. The low temperatures have caused some damage to the roots but all being well the beet still in the ground will be ok until it is lifted and delivered.

This week we have started sowing a little more wheat, we are ploughing and ‘combi-drilling’ for this. Combi drilling is basically working the land and sowing in the same pass. On our better land up around the Caistor high street this is a useful practice to establish a little more wheat to take the emphasis off growing a large acreage of spring barley. As we move to our more difficult land towards Hatton we will require a lot more patience to establish crops in good conditions!

We are currently reviewing our farming practices, we are looking to move in a more ‘regenerative’ direction. Watch this space as this develops!

Deer Diary

With all the rain at the beginning of January the ground underfoot for the deer has been a little challenging. The hinds have coped well with the wet weather but are certainly happier on the drier ground now that we have moved them.

As it’s their first winter, our summer-born calves are kept in the roundhouse during the coldest months to acclimatise them to the cold and wet weather. The calves have settled well into roundhouse living and are enjoying sheltering there over the winter.

Some of your may remember Dotty, our deer calf that we had to hand-rear back in 2021 after being rejected by her mother. This year it is possible that Dotty is in calf for the first time, however it’s still early stages in the hinds’ pregnancies and as yet we cannot tell if she’s pregnant or not! We are delighted to report that she is just as friendly as ever though and loves nothing more than to come over for a ‘chat’ when we go into the enclosures to feed them.