If June was visitor time, then July is show time.... lots of new innovation  in agriculture to look at...the first of the robots is here... and the lambs are growing amazingly. 

Real live visitors are back. School children, farm walks, rural commentators and journalists. Crops (and weeds) are growing by the second so we are weeding and hoeing and racing towards harvest. The ewes need to be shorn and the farm dog has given birth. 

It has been cold and dry but the last of the lambs are born, the crops are growing and the wild spring flowers are out in abundance.

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Our crops planted in the Autumn are growing - as are the weeds - and we are racing to get our Spring-sown crops in the ground. Lambing is well under way here in Shimpling.

We started this Shimpling Park Farm Diary because the Covid 19 pandemic meant we had to cancel all the school parities.  Little did we know that a year later we would still be  posting.  We have loved the engagement with all those keen to see what is happening on the farm.  We are amazed how many different people come to the farm every week. We are sure that we are seeing climate changes in action and more than ever we are hugely proud of our amazing farm team. 

The spring drilling is underway and the ewes are reaching their time!

IIt's time to scan the sheep to see what lambs we are expecting and we are finally able to get on the fields in the extreme freeze. Get it right, and the frosts will help us get good seedbeds and kill a few weeds on the way.  Lots of  Spring seed is arriving which seems a little optomistic in this rain!

IWe hope all the ewes are pregnant. They are certainly eating lots of haylage that we made in the summer! The barn owls are hunting and we have finished planting 50 acres of agroforestry amid lots of rain and lots of snow here at Shimpling Park Farm.

IIt's quiet on the farm. We are counting and photographing birds, feeding sheep and preparing for the New Year.

IIt is very muddy and wet at Shimpling Park Farm so no field work is being done but after years of planning, we have started planying our Agroforestry project where crops and trees will grow side by side in the fields together.  3500 trees have arrived and we are planting hard!

The teasers come out of the field and the rams go in. The fat lambs are being sorted and the breeding ones kept. Rain has stopped play with the sowing and the weather means we are ploughing in tandem. 

The lambs are fattening and going to slaughter. The rain stops play with the sowing  and we decide to experiment with growing two crops together to limit the risk of crop failure. 

The lambs are fattening and going to slaughter. The rain stops play with the sowing  and we decide to experiment with growing two crops together to limit the risk of crop failure. 

A World champion sheerer gives Cameron a few tips while the arable team get on with some Autumn sowing.

Harvest gets finished and John and Robert go shopping for rams.

John shows us round his combine and explains why it is now urgent that we get the barley and oats into the barn. 

Finaly harvest starts. We try out some new machinery and the heavens open!

Discovering so many butterflies on the farm and  getting ready for harvest