Home ed farm visit

We were down on the farm for an education visit today. The weather was dismal but the company was good and we had a great time 'behind the scenes'.

Hitching a ride. These chicks are only a week old.

 

Oats in the barn. Winter feed.

 

Forest trail.

 

Cows snaffling clover silage.

 

We saw much more than this and there are a few areas I want to follow up with Hermione; why meat is more profitable than dairy, animal welfare, the reason for animal tagging and passports, difference between silage and hay, the science of animal feeds (grass testing for deficient nutrients to enable appropriate supplements to be used) and farm safety.

It was good to be able to go along and see people at work as opposed to petting fluffy animals in the public area. We got to chat and watch a guy weighing sheep to decide whether they had become fat enough for slaughter. The ones that had attained the right weight were marked with a dot of paint. The farmers wife explained that those particular animals didn't go through their own butchery, they went elsewhere to be made into kebab meat! If she didn't dispel confusions about where meat actually comes from nothing will! I think I was the only veggie there. I wonder if that's still so *grin*.