70 Out of Doors

Keeping poultry can be ‘fowl’ through winter bird flu season

A Rawston Farm turkey. Two interesting turkey facts for you: only male turkeys gobble, and their poop identifies their gender (a male’s poop will be shaped like the letter J, while the female’s is more spiral-shaped!)

A surge in people keeping their own poultry during the lock-down egg shortage could be why ‘bird flu’ is spreading from wild to domestic fowl, argues James Cossins

Here at Rawston farm we are all about producing and sourcing local. We don’t just rear our own beef; we also rear own Christmas turkeys for the butchery and shop. We were pleased with the quality of our turkeys and have received positive feedback from customers. This is what gives me great pleasure in rearing our own turkeys - it is of huge concern to us that we ensure a good Christmas dinner for you. But rearing turkeys does have its challenges: one night we had a visit from Mr Fox who beat us to the birds’ evening lock-up and sadly took five turkeys as an early Christmas dinner. Greedy! The winter is a challenging time for all poultry producers - and hobbyists should be aware too. During covid, with a national shortage of eggs, many people wanting their own eggs bought chickens and ducks. Bird flu (also known as avian influenza) is rife at this time of year. This year has been the worst the UK has seen, with currently 80 outbreaks across the country, and it’s not only in wild birds but also domestic birds. With current bird flu regulations, DEFRA advice is to keep all poultry inside or netted to prevent wild birds from coming into contact with poultry and to prevent wild birds from using the same food and water source. Please look at DEFRA’s website for more information.

Guarantee of high quality

As an Arla Milk producer we get regular audits from independent vets to look at our cattle from a health and welfare prospective. This ensures that all Arla’s milk can be sold with a guarantee of high standards. As a producer we keep records of any health problems that may occur. All medicines we use are recorded on a computerised system. Our own vet from the Damory Vet Practice has worked out our total medicine useage for the last year and determined whether our usage has changed and also how we compare with the other dairy producers within the practice. Our audit takes place next week and we are hoping that we meet their necessary requirements to continue with our Arla milk contract. In the past vets have been helpful in advising where we can improve on any particular issues that we face. They are keen to see records where we have had the cows independently scored for mobility (for example, is there any lameness present) and the overall appearance of our cattle. Let’s hope for a positive outcome!

Winter feeding

We do out-winter some animals

“Mr Fox beat on a forage crop and bales of straw and silage. So far, this us to the birds’ winter has been kind to them, evening lock-up apart from the wet period over and sadly took five turkeys as an Christmas. We always try to choose free draining fields with hedges for early Christmas shelter and often they can be in a dinner. Greedy!” more healthy environment than animals kept inside buildings through the winter. As we move through February the days are finally getting longer, and hopefully there will no more bad winter weather.

The names we farmers get called…

…are often preductable and not always flattering. But a new term has appeared which reflects modern green thinking, says Andrew Livingston

Farmers get called a lot of names – and they’re not always nice: yokel, yeoman, crofter. Even Worzel Gummidge still! But a term I recently heard was that we are Carbon Stewards. Well, that’s a step up, and pretty fitting with the current fight with climate change. Any good carbon steward worth their salt will have to know their way around their dirt. You really can’t get away from soil… it is quite literally everywhere! Still to this day, in the 21st century, I don’t believe we know everything about the earth underneath our feet. On a basic level, soil is made up of five ingredients - minerals, organic matter, living organisms, gas and water. As I stated last month, ploughing is now seen as an archaic practice; the breaking of the soil releases carbon dioxide into the air. Now, arable farmers are being instructed to plant what is called a cover crop to introduce more carbon into the ground - a process called carbon sequestration.

Enrich the soil by doing less

Cover crops are designed to feed the earth rather than the farmer and his customers. Predominantly, when cover crops are grown to the required height, rather than being harvested, they are killed in the field so their matter can feed back into the soil. Richer soil health is not only better for the environment, but it can also increase the health and yield of your cash crop. Additionally, the roots of the cover crop help trap and hold moisture - which can later water any nearby growing plants and vegetation, rather than having to use an irrigation system. Finally, cover crops add important nutrients such as nitrogen into the soil, improving the growth of your harvest crop that sow into the ground next.

How they’re used

There are two main types of cover crops; ‘catch’ and ‘companion’. The first aims to catch and store as many nutrients, water and carbon dioxide into the ground before your next crop comes in. Companion crops will be grown alongside your cash crops, with the added benefit of attracting pollinators to the cash crop. With the constant reduction of pesticides being used on farms, farmers are also beginning to grow ‘sacrificial’ crops for pests such as insects and birds to eat. Think of it as placing a McDonalds next to a Michelin Star restaurant to keep the general riff-raff out!

The downside

The issue with cover crops is it is hard to see where your profit is coming from. It’s unusual to plant a crop to just kill it where it stands; you wouldn’t rear a lamb to have it slaughtered and left in the field. Some farmers are admittedly slow to take to cover crops. With margins on farms being so tight, it’s understandable that they don’t look to the future by protecting their soil. It’s not that they don’t want to take on that mantle of ‘carbon steward’, it’s more that they are worried that fighting for your ground doesn’t put food on the table or the shops. Thankfully, the new Environmental Land Management Scheme (ELMS) is to have funding for farmers who look to nurture their soil. Also, some water companies are offering grants for farmers’ cover crops to help trap nitrogen in the soil. (play the short video below with sound UP to enjoy a Purple Tansy cover crop in Dorset last summer)

See details and availability of Carl’s local foraging courses on his website Self sufficient Hub here Chickweed is abundant almost all year round, and is an amazingly tasty salad green, packed full of vitamins

Wild (and free) food is springing up!

Few know that the much-derided chickweed is an amazingly tasty salad green packed full of vitamins, says expert forager Carl Mintern, who shares what you can find in February on your daily walk

February definitely feels like winter, but with the days lengthening we can turn our thought toward the spring.

Alexanders (Smyrnium olusatrum) were introduced by the Romans, who used it as a pot herb. It tastes like parsley; leaves can be used in salads and the stems are delicious steamed, boiled, or lightly fried and tossed in butter Shoots are starting to appear in hedgerows and snowdrops are already making their welcome appearance. Some wild plants or edible mushrooms are available, or even at their best, right now! Alexanders (Smyrnium olusatrum) are one such plant. Alexanders are a biennial first introduced to our shores by the Romans, who brought it with them as a pot herb. They are among the best wild vegetables of spring. It is widespread, some would call it invasive, in coastal regions around the Blackmore Vale, across the whole of the south of the country in fact but can also be seen inland. Hedgerows are where you should be looking for this plant. You can pick the stems right now and they will continue to be harvestable when the first flower buds appear in late March and April and beyond. With a flavour similar to angelica

by Carl Mintern or parsley, the stems are delicious steamed or boiled, or lightly fried tossed in butter. Salads can be invigorated with their leaves and flowers. As always, be sure you know what you are collecting: never munch on a hunch (as every forager knows). Particular care must be made to avoid some of this plant’s cousins in the carrot family, which include both hemlock and hemlock water dropwort, both of which are deadly.

The lowly chickweed

A particular favourite of mine is Chickweed (Stellaria media). This common plant is an amazingly tasty salad green and is packed full of vitamins. This weed can replace lettuce in any salad and is out there growing right now. It can be found in meadows, waste ground and gardens. The beautiful white flowers will also liven up the appearance of a salad. Chickweed is abundant almost all year round and is certainly one every forager should add to their repertoire.

Winter mushrooms

Finally, let’s mention a great winter fungus, the velvet shank mushroom (Flammulina velutipes). You can find these bright coloured orangebrown caps fruiting through the winter. Velvet shank mushrooms are saprophytic, meaning they live on dead and decaying trees. Look for orange-coloured caps (3-7cm across when fully grown), growing in large profusions. They have a glutinous layer to their caps in all but the driest conditions. They are related to species of mushrooms cultivated in Japan and are a great mushroom to add to asian dishes. They superficially look like some other species including the deadly funeral bell. But while the funeral bell is a summer/ autumn mushroom, the velvet shank is a winter bloomer. This lovely species will start showing itself in early winter and can continue until around March.

The velvet shank mushroom (Flammulina velutipes) are at their best right now, are a great mushroom to add to asian dishes

WILDLIFE

Jane Adams - Naturalist. bTB

Badger Vaccinator. Nature writer.

Photographer. Bee Watcher.

Eighty glistening eyes stared at me!

‘I was shocked when I heard a loud gurgling sound as I took the bins out one night – but was delighted when I saw what it meant’, says Jane Adams

I first heard the gurgling when I was putting the recycling out. It was a dark, wet night, and as I dragged the bin to the curb, the sound grew louder. I wondered if the sewer under the lawn was blocked again, and sighed. Poking rods down the drain hadn’t been a pleasant experience. Weirdly, when I returned with a torch, the sound had stopped. But waving a light around the garden, its beam came to rest on something unexpected; eighty glistening frog eyes. And as I stared back, their gurgling and croaks restarted.

The possibly-wrong pond

We’d dug a pond the previous autumn. Friends had helped. Dreams of dragonflies flying round the garden had spurred us on. At 2x1 metres, the pond was small. But it had a shallow and a deep end, and a liner, and we’d thrown in a few native aquatic plants. We weren’t sure if what we were doing was right, but it was worth a go. I hadn’t given frogs much thought until then. Well, you don’t, do you?

And yet ‘common frogs’ are far less common than their name suggests. Slug and snail killing pesticides have cleared many gardens “for a few days, of the our previously common lifeless pond frogs’ overflowed with biggest food sex crazed frogs” source. Imported diseases have weakened and killed them. And, in the UK, we’ve lost 500,000 ponds in the last century. Is it any wonder common frog numbers have been falling for over 40 years?

The start of something good

That year, the first year I saw them, February started icy cold, then turned to drizzle; the cue frogs need to emerge from the undergrowth and spawn. For a few days, our previously lifeless pond had overflowed with sex crazed frogs, and their clumps of spawn filled the shallows. Local frogs had needed a pond, and I hadn’t even realised. Fourteen years later, that same small pond is now the wildlife hub of our garden. Mammals and birds use it to drink and bathe. Dragonflies, damselflies, newts, and toads lay their eggs amongst its weeds. And, as I drag the recycling out to the curb, and February’s drizzle descends, I smile at the sound of gurgling.

How you can help your local frogs: • Add a pond; they prefer one 2m across, but even a tiny

‘pond in a pot’ helps • Provide piles of rocks, logs and leaves; spaces to shelter from predators, shade in hot summers and for food foraging • Avoid using pesticides and slug pellets; an unwanted garden pest is welcome food for frogs and toads, and the chemicals may be harmful click here for more tips