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[Cornish Gems]

We have had a very rewarding experience in the last 5 years and it is all down to THE BOOK without which we would never have had the nerve to start a smallholding. The rewards have been tremendous and very memorable even with ups and downs such as the wind causing problems, the worst of which was when it vlew down the 2 sides we had erected for the shed, so that we had to start it all agaiin.

 

The winter before last winter though has made us realise that we really ought to stop punishing our bodies so much and that our hearts, high blood pressures, thyroid and knee problems needed looking after.

 

Pigs

 

So we contacted a local market and they were very supportive. It was however disappointing to learn that our pigs; our carefully bred herd of pigs; were not sold the way we expected. For instance, our pure bred GOS boar of 27 months; bred with 2 different strains of AI from Deer Park, did not make enough to cover the cost of the AI!

 

We used to sell our weaners for £40 and £35 depending on their sex. We are therefore very pleased to have had the sense to keep back one sow and one gilt, because the gilt has produced a litter of 7 and at least 5 of them are girls and the sow has started trying to make a 'nest'.

 

Somebody suggested we ought to make a list of everything that needs doing but we daren't! There is so much that will need disposal one way or another that it would scare us to see a list and so we are doing one thing at a time.

[Cornish Gems]

We are utterly gobsmacked!

 

We have been considering the auctioning of the land so that we all have a given date for closure. Now we have learnt that because the caravan is not residential and only used for accommodation that Capital Gains Tax will be payable on the increase in value of the land. Even though an allowance is made for the capital expenditure for the buildings, you can imagine that the owner is not a very happy bunny.

 

In the meantime, we are pressing on.  In our other diary thread, we mentioned that we had decided to have a Tricel6 unit and we were aware that it had to be carefully emptied in order to maintain its integrity and we were lucky enough to find the website for Septic Tank Supplies who state that they offer an emptying service second to none through one of their 'partners'. We can support their claim as the company they recommended did an excellent job. Indeed. if anything, the unit seems even more efficient than before.

 

We could only find one company who provided skips in our area. However, we were very pleased to learn that we could put plastic food sacks and other farming plastic in the skip. Now one skip has been filled and suddenly the 'shed' looks bigger!

 

One very good friend of ours came over at the weekend with his digger and dug a trench so that we could at long last bury the electrc cable leading from the 'shed' to the water pump in the borehole. Also at the same time we had a working party in the polytunnel and are very pleased with the result except that it now shows how much still needs doing!

 

The sow decided that the farrowing ark was not big enough for her and so broke out of her pen and made another 'nest' outside the polytunnel where she had her babies. Out of the 11 surviving babies, at least 5 of them are girls - which reminds us - the gilt actually has had SIX girls and only one boy. That is the highest percentage we had ever had.

 

We have decided to keep the sheep for a bit longer as they are doing a good job of keeping the grass down, but we have sold the Khaki Cambell ducks and kept the white ones because we think they look so good on the pond.

 

Finally, closing down is one of the hardest things we have ever had to do and we are not enjoying it. However, does anyone want to buy some trees? If so, why not have a look in the For Sale section?

[Cornish Gems]

The gilt was called Lucky because she was the one we chose to keep when we sold her siblings and the sow was good ol' Blackie who produced 3 litters last year giving us 40 piglets. Anyway we have now sold Lucky's 7 babies for a discounted price of £250 and then accepted a good offer for the mother herself. Indeed, she made as much as we had expected for our pure-bred GOS sows and as it turned out 3 times what they actually made at market.

 

Blackie's 11 babies continue to be healthy and very free range. She likes to wallow in the duck pond and when she lies in a certain way, she looks a bit like a hippo! Her babies are spoken for but we do not actually wean the weaners until they reach the age of 8 weeks although we do know that some commercial breeders do not hesitate to wean at only 4 weeks.

 

We are pleased with the current crop in Third Meadow. The first year we tried hay but it was not much use to us as none of our livestock wanted it and so we then tried winter wheat, followed by spring barley, then rape and now winter wheat again. This crop is definitely showing how much the soil in the field has improved.

 

The lower pig paddock has had to be topped whilst the middle pig paddock is slowly being tilled so that it can be reseeded. Wonderful brother-in-law sprayed thistles, stinging nettles and docks for us last weekend and already the weed killer is taking effect.

 

We only have 6 arks left to sell, but our agent suggests that we do not sell any of the chicken huts or duckhouses until after the land auction. He looked up the images on Google and made encouraging comments about everything we have done here. He also tells us not to worry about all the plants until after the land auction as it may well be that the successful bidder might want to make an offer for them. He says that the ones in the polytunnel show it off beautifully. Selling at the end of Aug/begin of Sept also means that the buyer might still have enough time to substantially complete the building of the barn before the 5 years stated in the council's letter expires.

 

Our advice to anyone is to find a niche in the market and buid on it. We tried selling meat produce and subsequently realised that it would be better to raise weaners.We have since been very touched by the comments made by our regular customers about how much they are going to miss us. It feels good to know that our weaners became so easy to sell - indeed some were spoken for even before they were born! We also tried duck and chicken eggs with some success but also found that real money can be made in fertile eggs, especially once one's buyers discover the successful hatching rates.

 

Finally, just to clear up a bit of confusion - the land is owned by one of us in one name and then the pair of us in our married names are the 'tenants'. It absolutely amazed us that the council was not in the least bit interested in the actual ownership of the land!