farmingGeorge’s Fobbing Farm UpdateChasing cowsMay finally saw a positive change to the weather in the form of some seasonal warmth. The excessive cold of April has unfortunately hit quite a few of my agroforestry trees hard, but I hope they now have the chance to recover. All of the Spring crops (planted before the end of March) had previously just been sitting there, not moving, with just a couple of leaves poking out of the ground, but finally those too are beginning to motor in the Spring warmth.Peas beginning to grow.Lentils on their way!At the start of May I was very fortunate to welcome Charlie Burrell, Ivan De Klee, and Russ Carrington from the Knepp Rewilding Project to the farm. I have spoken a few times before about how wondrous the Knepp Estate in West Sussex is – Isabella Tree’s book Wilding was written about its transition from conventional agriculture to the wild landscape it is today.Balmy weather meant we could have a picnic outside and chat about the farm before taking a walk and discussing the projects that I am working on currently – notably the wild seam, reservoir, and outdoor milking. Back in his conventional farming days, Charlie actually ran three herds of Red Poll cows for milking. Being able to personally ask questions in such an intimate setting and on my farm, in this environment & ecosystem, was absolutely fantastic, and I learned lots!The reason for their wanting to visit me was due to the regenerative agriculture project that Russ is currently heading up at Knepp. Having previously just been a project based around rewilding (leading to criticism from certain facets of the farming community), Knepp is now creating a farm which entirely links into their wild, natural environment, to produce food for sale directly to customers. That end-to-end principle is so core to the regenerative, agroecological movement of farming. Given that this is precisely what I am creating here in Fobbing, they wanted to see this type of farming in action. The wild area I manage to create here just won’t be quite as large as their already established one! To read more about this super project, head over to www.kneppestate.co.uk/regenerative-agricultureIn the middle of May, my additional heifer cows turned up: the twelve beauties from the Canute herd in Northamptonshire that I wrote of in my last article, plus four more from a farm in North Essex, two of whom were old enough to run with the bull. Both lots were to arrive on the same day with a haulier collecting the twelve from up north, and Dad driving to pick up those from North Essex in the cattle trailer behind my Land Rover.Heifers from the Canute herd that came later in the day.Dad arrived back first, and everything seemed fine. The younger two yearling heifers (not old enough to be served by the bull) were popped in the meadow before driving down to the older cows & bull on the marshes to drop the older two animals in with them. As we drove down, I checked the animals’ passports only to realise that at 18 months I wasn’t happy with one of these heifers going to the bull yet. Native breeds, such as Red Poll, tend to be served at two-years-old rather than 15 months since they are a little slower growing, and obviously need lots of pelvic room to calve naturally without assistance.Due to this change in decision, we only left the older cow in with the bull and took the other back to its herd-mates in the meadow. We dropped her in, and Dad bumbled off with the trailer as I jumped in the field to inspect my new stock. However, the cattle had been stirred up by being transported; exacerbated by my decision-change over where to put one of the heifers…As I stood, 200 yards away from these three jittery animals, one decided to make a break for freedom and cleared the fence and hedge into the graveyard. Swearing, I hot-footed it the long way round by road to the (luckily enclosed) church grounds. I had expected her to be wandering amongst the gravestones, but she was nowhere to be found.But luck had struck! Where she had cleared the fence was an exceptionally useful thicket of bramble in which she was stuck. So with some gentle encouragement she hopped back into the meadow. Crisis averted. Phew.Or so I thought.Some days, cattle have a special way of making you sweat and swear… Thank goodness for this thicket!I circled back along the road to the paddock to find now only one cow in the field. Sheesh! The other two had decided to clear another bit of fence and hare across the farm to be found (a couple of hours later) about a mile away on our marshes. Stressed and frustrated, Dad and I agreed they could rest there and we would attempt to come up with a plan to get these reprobates back over the next couple of days.Ragamuffins!! My attempt at taking a picture through my old binoculars. They are called ‘effers’ for a reason.The miscreants had come to rest just one field over from our breeding cows and calves, but since these animals are so quiet, the new escapees hadn’t realized they were there. The only time the older animals are not quiet is when they are moved. And thankfully as we moved them over the weekend, they made a racket, pricking up the ears of the heifers who trotted their way around fences, jumping a couple of ditches and finally an electric fence, to make their new friends.They were now with the bull. Which was definitely not the plan. However, to save stirring them up again, we chose to let them remain with the bull. The 18-month-old heifer I will allow to be served, and just keep a close eye on her at calving. She should be okay. The yearling however is definitely not old enough, and so with her we will use a hormone injection to ensure she aborts if she has been served. This is not a management practice that I like, but given the scenario I think it makes the most sense.In the correct place? Not exactly. But this lot look nice and content as a large mob on fresh pasture. Both of my groups of cattle are moved daily, to ensure they always have fresh grub, and to maintain peak herd-health, whilst doing their best for carbon sequestration and biodiversity. To learn more about this, head over to an Instagram post I wrote about just this, linked here.When the fantastic animals from Northamptonshire arrived, I was so stressed I couldn’t enjoy it at all! Although as I write this, knowing that things have turned out pretty much okay, I can laugh about it. It’s funny how livestock, which bring so much joy and positive mental health to a farm, can flip and provide such a tremendous amount of stress and very negative head space!On Monday 17th May I did my first ever ‘Instagram Live’ with Julia Bradbury. Julia is obviously known for her television appearances on Countryfile and other similar outdoorsy programmes, but it’s great to know that she is genuinely personally interested in the same subjects. Our talk was focused around agroecology, and how processed food can disregard the nutrition a farmer has grown, versus ‘real food’ which is better able to make that nutrition bioavailable to humans. It was a lot of fun to record, with Julia really knowing her subject. Since the idea of this link up was first mooted back in March, it was ace for it to actually come to fruition. If you want to take a look, head over to Julia’s Instagram @therealjuliabradbury where you will find the IGTV post from 17th May, or click here.My electrician also came in this month to finally get my mill turning! The electrics are currently in safe but scratch format – I needed to be able to get the mill running in order to true up the runner stone, and start playing about with milling (buckwheat flour first, of course!). But full electrics (including finally some lights!) will be happening in the coming weeks.Definitely a janky set up……but it produced this spectacular buckwheat flour!My grain cleaning equipment also turned up this month – requiring extensive electrical work as well – so the processing aspect of my business is getting very close to being fully functional. Rather exciting.Processing kit arriving all the way from the Czech Republic.As a final reminder, Open Farm Sunday will be occurring on Sunday, 27th June. If you aren’t in my area of South Essex / aren’t wanting to travel, then head over to www.farmsunday.org where you can pop in your postcode to see farms in your local area who are opening their gates. But if you fancy coming for a tour at mine, the plan is to meet in my farmyard at 1:45 for a 2pm set-off. It will be in the form of a two-hour farm walk (approx.), taking in my wild seam, Red Poll cows, heritage cereals & niche crops, agroforestry, grain processing & milling, plus some of the more out-there ideas I am also currently working on.The start of my wild seam, which is already looking spectacular and harbouring a vast amount of wildlife. Can’t wait to roll it out across the farm.And here is Albert the overly friendly calf looking silly in my Akubra hat!To be Covid secure, I have sorted a ‘Track and Trace’ QR code, so provided you have the NHS Covid app on your phone, you should be able to just turn up on the day. It would be super to see lots of you there! Contact details:George Young07792 508 611George@FobbingFarms.co.uk@farmingGeorge