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Many thanks to the team at GrowIN for my prize - the trail outdoor camera. Something which I wanted for a long time! Suspecting that we had a visitor to our bin, I set up the camera to attempt to capture whatever it was. With a bit of trial and error, some of the better footage is attached.

The farm woodland floor is shaping up nicely supporting fungi and mosses from the decaying branches and leaves. Ray King

Natural protein! Potential food source for some livestock. What trees have your livestock benefits from this year?

Having tried agroforestry through the EFS scheme (Every Farmer Suffers😂), I was unable to stop the sheep from interacting with the trees and damaging them and, at the 5m spec spacings, couldn't carry out machinery work. Wishing to increase the number of trees on farm, I tried a mostly self funded

With thanks to Maureen and Jim at the Irish Agroforestry Forum.

Grazing tight with EasyCare ewes at the minute to allow light to the bottom of the sward and encourage clover stolon growth.

Grass growing at 90kgDM/ha/day. Farm covers getting high again but lambs will soon work through it. From gutters to clover

Growth taken off and covers building again

Another example of how a sward mix can bring diversity 🌿🐝🌻 Leafcutter Grass Moth Hoverfly What insects have you seen on site?

Growth up to 55kgDM/ha. Wedge a bit flat but to be expected because of the weather

It's our first year in the Environmental Farming Scheme and we're hoping to use the Winter Bird Food Crop option as a bit of a summer cover crop soil conditioner as an entry for either a spring cereal or herbal ley. We'll rotate around different fields over the five years of the agreement and it wil

EasyCare ewes and lambs moved into last years reseed. A mix of fescues, timothy and clovers which is growing at 70kg DM/day with no fertiliser or fym since last June. Needs to be grazed tightly to maintain quality 😳

Another 3 bits of fields out for silage. Avg Grass covers were getting high at 2300 so back now to 1965.

Avg farm cover back under control for now

Monitoring soil and plant growth in different trial beds. Photo 1. Tree mulch - I am hoping for an increase in water retention and bigger yields. I will update in spring. (Is the competition still going? 🙈 I can try and do another post in 2023)

The ewes are now all away on their winter holidays, replaced by badgers by the looks of things. Hopefully the fields will get rested rather than rotovated till early March. Average cover 1950kgDM/ha so light should get to my clover.

What are people's view on the algae bloom? It's really frustrating. It seems to be getting worse around the island.

We are past peak mustard flower power in the mix and Phacelia starting to do good things. Lot of biomass.

Interesting and challenging farm walk last week at Jonny's, thanks for hosting. Looks like I am into the long grass system too. Not great for sheep's feet 🙈

Probably about 50% white clover in last years reseed

Grazed down to 1700kgDM/ha

A Hawthorn Shieldbug 🪲🪲🪲 A sign of healthy Hedging. What indicators do you look for on your land?

Four weeks with no rain and grass growth at 15kg has resulted in a deficit of grass. Will soon be reckified though with the imminent rain.

The use of the Merlin bird ID app seems to have kicked off a fair bit in recent weeks and I have to admit looking at envy at what other farms are recording. Here's what was recorded along woodland edge here last night. What are other people finding in terms of species and diversity?

Flowering?

Wedge still looking good with little surplus at the minute. Have a field out for silage which if need be can be added into grazing cycle.

The orchard started over lockdown but there is some old (ancient) oaks in the area (Ancient oaks would be 400 years+). The large oak over looking the orchard is more than likely older than Belfast (1888 city status) It was probably after 1740. Does anyone grow fruit trees on their farms? A goo