Hello! And a warm welcome to Mawley Town Farm posts page. I do find it hard to find the time to keep you all up to date other than through the social channels, but I have made a promise to myself (and to you) to try and carve out a little time to summarise whats been going on around the farm lately.
Mawley President Lady aka ‘Dinky’
One cold and wet Sunday in December we had the surprise arrival of ‘Dinky’ – the first calf to be born sired by our homebred bull, Mawley President. The surprise was because she wasn’t due for anther 6 weeks! Fortunately her dam, Mawley Lady, was already next to the maternity wing in preparation for her future calving. As premature calves are under developed, we really felt the odds were stacked against this little lady, so we got swiftly into action; we got her into a clean dry pen, and set up a heat lamp to keep her warm as her coat was very thin and gave her a feed of colostrum.
Over the weeks with lots of care and attention from our experienced calf rearer, Trevor, Dinky continues to do really well. She is pictured here with a calf of the same age, Mawley Top Honey – you can see just how small she was! Especially when you compare her to the Great Dane in the background 😉
Dinky’s future is looking bright, and I will keep you posted of her development.
What do you want to hear about? Drop me an email and let me know!
Coronavirus Update
We are very thankful that our dairy and delivery staff have all remained fit and well throughout the pandemic and they have adapted tremedoustly to new working practices. We have been able to continue to provide our regular delivery service, and we look forward to welcoming back our friends in the hospitality industry as the lockdown restrictions are eased.
Renewable Energy
After a short period of shutdown for maintenance, the anaerobic digester (AD) is back up and running to full capacity, and along with the wind turbine and PV (solar panels) provide us with all our electricity needs. The AD runs a gas engine, from methane captured in the cow slurry (thats whats in the green dome you can see from the road). Like any engine it gets warm and to take the heat away cold water pipes circulate the engine and act like a radiator; we then pump what is now hot water away around the farm to pre-heat boilers for the milking parlour, dairy and farmhouse. The cows also benefit from the technology as the pipes are also frost-proofing the cow sheds. We love the wind and solar renewables too, its just that they rely on the lovely British weather! I do think our turbine has one of the best views in South Shropshire 🙂
Thank you for stopping by! See you next week. Rachel at #TeamMawley
