I originally was going to be doing a five-year plan of where the farm is going for the future. However, since then significant things have changed. We are delighted to have had grants that we applied for accepted, which means we can move towards reducing our carbon footprint. So, instead, with this blog post, I wanted to focus on what lies ahead for the next year for us on the farm. There’s a lot of projects coming up (all with deadlines) as well as the normal day-to-day duties that need to continue, and the seasonal work on top of it all too.

So let’s get into it, here is a list of all the projects that are coming up in 2023 (in no particular order):

The first one has already been completed, and that was to put a fence, with hedges, trees and gate posts along our main lane, 230meters in total to be exact.

We’re purchasing a plate meter reader for measuring our grazing platform.

There is 3000m of fencing around the whole farm to be completed. This is mainly replacing what we already have and fencing off our waterways, too.

The slurry lagoon needs to be completed. We are waiting for the better weather (which will happen shortly) for a liner to go in and then we can start filling it.

We are planting 60 acres of maize to try and cut down our cost of buying feed in for the cows during the winter.

We have a shed to put up, to cover our muck midding which is to coincide with the new regulations that are coming into place.

There are 800m of cattle tracks to be put in. We already have purchased all of the Astroturf, as we got an amazing deal on some secondhand turf from our local rugby club.

We have six months to be able to put up 600m of walling around the farm. This is mainly filling in gaps that have fallen down over the years.

We did look into getting a robotic slurry vacuum, but we have decided to hold off for a year as we were given the heads up that this might fall under another grant scheme that is coming up shortly. We have applied for a few other small grants to help purchase some new machinery (to do with slurry and heat time collars). So fingers crossed we hear about those shortly.

We definitely have a lot of activity happening on the farm, I imagine there’s going to be a lot of stress to go with it too, to make sure that we do get everything done in time. Keep watching my stories on Instagram to keep up with our daily life and see if we do manage to complete the list!

Much love Rebecca