We complain but compared to Thorp or other parts of the county we've had it easy. However, friends in Thuxton also faced serious water issues. February has been really wet far more for us than January. We see it in our high tunnels where there is almost no need to water the plants, as the soil sucks in the dampness from outside.
Our ecologists and biologists were right, the addition of red spectrum lights (to the blue lights) really helped flowering, which in turn gave better cues to the bees who have been pollinating like mad even in January. Of course, we are fooling the plants, but we are not changing the plant's rhythm, we are optimizing it. It also allowed us to differentiate sectors so that the plants don't all begin producing fruits at the same time. I understand that this appears to be unnatural, but we are just replacing the sun rays that the cloud and polycarbonate hid from our plants.
Our youngest daughter says the farm is almost a closed circuit, although the massive pile of compost, we have been unable to spread on our fields appears more like adding (fields are too soft). The compost is one of the five outputs that are produced by our biodigesters (compost, water, and three gases).
I've been asked if we see the signs of recession? The answer is yes, the price of produce should have been higher in February, we can only attribute the lower prices in the second half to the softening in the market. Demand for our transformed products has not abated, but we believe that this segment of the market is more protected from the vagaries of the economy. Ten days ago, Jennnifer and I had conversations with our wholesalers, we assumed that like in January they would be looking for an increase in production from us, between January 2023 and 2024 we have increased sales to wholesalers by nearly 20%, which was a massive endeavour on our part, but we cannot increase beyond that level for at least 12 months. We assumed that this would be the topic of conversation, but it was not. They just wanted confirmation that we could guarantee 80% of our current production target, this indicates that they see some market softness.
Our solution, we increased the quality of produce we send to the wholesalers, and extract more for sale to our transformation businesses. As an example, only absolutely perfect string beans are sent to the wholesalers, anything with a curve is diverted (reduced quantity but higher rating & price). This will enable us to increase sales by 20% to our transformation businesses.
Our pie company, which is/was vegetarian will also be introducing meat pies, now that we will have some pork available. We had planned two teams of 40 porks (a mix of juveniles and mature animals) but we got a deal from a Welsh farm exiting the pork business, and were able to purchase about 1/3rd of his herd. So the total number of pigs will not be 80 but closer to 160, twice our initial target. According to our forewoman, our farm could easily accommodate 300 forest pigs. Pigs take about 18 months to fully mature. The additional time is because our pigs are feeding from the forest and not from pig feed.
Our biggest concern is ramblers that may decide to cross our forests, we have put up signs every 100 meters that the specific forest is home to a team of pigs, and pigs can be very aggressive, actually if not handled with care, outright dangerous. A 150kg pig that charges can ruin your day.
Finally, the biggest concern around Norfolk right now is cattle rustling. Our farm has not been affected so far. One of the measures we have taken was blocking access roads and adding surveillance equipment to the farm. Like all our neighbours we have taken active measures to prevent cattle theft.
So far so good...
Note: The areas where we have our pigs are delimited with electrified fences. You would assume that this would be an uncomfortable deterrent...you would be underestimating the bloodymindedness of English ramblers!
Note2: The additional high tunnels we installed this year are production destined for our processing businesses, we don't count that as part of the wholesale business -- since the wholesaler has no risk, its only a processing fee.
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