February 2024 at Stourton

Order your landscaping products to get ready for Spring

We’re feeling that spring is just around the corner and we are fully stocked up with bark, woodchip and playchip ready for all your gardening projects.

Woodchip is incredibly versatile. From keeping your borders tidy and suppressing weeds to laying a chicken run, or drying out a wet area such as a gateway or pathway this product is ideal.

To see our range of landscaping products and to place an order, please click here.

Willowglow Briquettes – a great alternative to logs (which are now out of stock)

Thanks to all our customers who have ordered kiln dried logs, however unfortunately we are now OUT OF STOCK (Tina will be in touch with you directly if you have been on our waiting list).

We won’t have any more logs to deliver now. We anticipate that log deliveries will start again in September.  We do have kindling and Willowglow briquettes available to order.

Willowglow briquettes are made from 100% British Willow with only 8% moisture content. They burn with a long-lasting heat output with no additives or chemicals.  Each pack contains 7 full size briquette and they are packed in re-cycled plastic. They are easy to modify in size to fit any Multifuel Stove, Open Fire, Firepit or BBQ free from spitting or sparking.  This is the perfect product to use all year round.

To place an order please click here or you can get in touch with Tina (Mon-thurs 9-4) on 01507 578236.

Quality Assured Venison Available to Order now

Now is the time to stock up on delicious healthy and lovingly reared venison.  We ensure our deer are managed to the highest standards and we offer a consistently high-quality product in terms of taste and texture, which – if you have ever eaten wild venison you will know cannot be guaranteed!   In fact, we have recently passed our quality assurance audit by SAI global assured venison with flying colours so you know you are eating meat that is not only extremely tasty but has also had the best care and attention.

We have a number of mixed selection packs available containing casserole steak, mince and frying steaks…on which we are offering a 10% discount so that you can enjoy delicious meals as well keeping your freezer stocked up.

Please phone Tina to place your order and arrange collection from Top Yard Farm LN9 5PB or home delivery can be arranged FOC with any other log / landscaping product.

Events for 2024:

We have a full programme of events for your diaries this year, more details will be on our website and socials soon, in the meantime SAVE THE DATES!

• Sunday 12^thMay – Lincs Wolds Outdoor Festival Activity Day
• Tuesday 14^thMay – 10am Guided Estate Walk
• Saturday 18^thMay – Lincolnshire YFC County Rally
• Friday  7^th& Saturday 8^th June – Somatics Self Care Day with Nicki
• Sunday 14^thJuly – Lincolnshire Makers Summer Artisan Market
• End of July – Sunflower Trail, dates dependent upon bloom!
• Sunday 8^thSept – Stourton Food & Drink Fayre
• Sunday 29^thSept – Autumn Open Day
• 7-10^thNov – Enchanted Lights

On the Farm

The theme of the past month is yet again weather issues. We had a nice settled period at the end of January/beginning of February which as mentioned in the previous blog post allowed us to get on with a little more drilling. Since the beginning of February however the great British weather has continued to delight with more rain! The wheat we drilled in January is largely now emerged but is struggling in a couple of areas due to waterlogging or slower draining parts of fields. However we are mostly happy with the progress of this late sown wheat to date, especially given the weather we have had.

You may remember previous mention of the Horncastle Flood Alleviation Scheme on our and a neighbours land. This has been busy (and operating correctly now) on a number of occasions this winter. When it was constructed we were told that the modelling was for it to come into operation once every 5 years. Since September, it has come into operation on 7 occasions! Since its ‘opening’ in 2018 it has come into operation on around 20 occasions!

There appears now to be some drier weather in the forecast, all being well this will allow us to make progress out on the land. We have a field to plough ahead of sowing sugar beet, as well as possibly one ahead of spring barley. The rest of the fields will either be lightly cultivated and then sown, or direct drilled depending on conditions. Before that though we need to get some fertiliser put on the autumn/winter sown crops. This will consist of a couple of separate applications in order to provide the crops with fresh phosphate, nitrogen, and sulphur. Here is a brief guide from Yara outlining some of the considerations we have in managing nutrition of our crops heading into spring.

In the more immediate future we are busy creating another SFI application to improve our environmental offering on the farm alongside our productive farming. We have now successfully transitioned between our 14 year old Environmental Stewardship agreement to a new Countryside Stewardship agreement, the SFI (sustainable farming incentive) will run alongside and complement the ‘CS’. We have always been very environmentally minded here at Stourton, and these new schemes are a fantastic way for us to extend what we already do and farm in a more sustainable way.

One of the more exciting things that has happened in February has been the interviewing of candidates from Harper Adams University for a year-long placement starting this July. This role will be a very broad one, encompassing all aspects of the business here at Stourton. We will do a full introduction of the successful candidate in July.

Deer Diary

New gates are being installed shortly around the roundhouse and it will be soon looking GrATE!!  Having feed barriers will make daily feeding much more efficient and less troublesome for the deer as we won’t have to go into their segments to feed them… although Dotty (our 3 year old hand reared calf) might not be happy. She was moved into the roundhouse in early January with the calves and has relished the opportunity to trot in & out of the whenever she feels on any particular day.  Last week she managed to escape the deer enclosure entirely and was wandering about in our garden until she was tempted back across the arboretum following Antony with a bucket of barley!!

Whilst the ground in the parks is still fairly sodden and muddy conditions are challenging so we (or Jamie!) has taken the opportunity to clean the feeding tractor (see the before & after images on whatsapp) so hopefully it won’t get in quite the same state again for quite some time!  On the plus side we can see the grass in the parks greening up as we look ahead to deer turn out in April, all being well.

On the Estate

The continuation of wet weather and storm damage is really delaying a lot of winter tidying jobs as it is very easy to make more of a mess!  However, we have removed many fallen branches and some dangerous trees and hope to have moved the brash from deer enclosure no.10 so that we can move the deer around the parks once they are all out of the roundhouse.

We have also started to plan our programme of work to spring clean and refresh the safari tent ready for weddings and events starting in early May so that it looks in tip top condition.

So, in summary, whilst we are not yet busy with events we are being kept very busy behind the scenes in preparation!