Some of you may have noticed trailer loads of grass being pushed into a heap in a field opposite Daisy Made during the last few weeks.
This is the grass that Daisy and friends will be fed during the winter months when there is no grass growing in the fields.
To make the silage the grass is allowed to grow long and thick before we mow it and then a machine chops the rows of grass and blasts it into a trailer.
The chopped grass is delivered to the clamp site where an extremely skilled (guess who ;) ) man pushes it up into a long heap or clamp with a tractor and rolls it to push out all the air and make it firm.
The next step is to cover the clamp with a polythene sheet to make it air tight and put tyres on top of the sheet to hold it tightly down.
Once the clamp is air tight the grass inside will pickle itself and then shou keep all the way  through to the following spring to provide winter food for the cows.
Because the grass is still moist when we chop and clamp it silage making is much easier and faster than making hay which requires good weather to dry the grass. 
There is a saying.. 'Make hay while the sun shines',   We now say.. 'Make silage while its not raining'  

Or more accurately Daisy's bedding !
Yes it was 'mucking out' time at Daisymade farm last week. If you came to visit us you may have noticed a very farmy aroma wafting in the air.
Mucking out had been delayed this time around to avoid half term week so there was a little more than usual.
Fresh straw bedding is added every day and it soon starts to build up so we like to have a clear out every month.
The picture above shows our Jcb removing the old bedding.
And below is at night with the cows relaxing on their new bed.

The sun is out in the sky and it's starting to feel just a little bit like spring !!
Daisy and friends are looking longingly at the fields dreaming of the sweet new grass that will soon be growing,
The 'fat' partridges that live around the farm have paired up ready for nesting,
Snowdrops are out in the garden,
AND what a lovely surprise to see so many of you at Daisymade this weekend !! Especially as i was out on Sunday and got away without having to work  :)  hehe.

 

Many of you have been horrified to discover that the burgers and lasagnes that are on the supermarket shelves are not only made from beef !
This has caused quite a stir, and quite rightly so.
It is important to know what is in your food and where it has come from.
When you buy a Daisy Made ice cream you can see the cows that ate the grass, that produced the milk, that made the icecream, thats in your hand..
The furthest it will have travelled is from the factory (next to the farmyard) 150metres to the shop.. Now that really is local !!

Daisy Made is all cow ;)     and maybe some chocolate, or strawberry, or mint, or caramel, or  rasberry, or vanilla or....well you get the idea  :)  
          

Hi everybody, welcome to our new Daisy Made website and my very first 'blog'. 

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and wish everyone a very happy new year .

The picture shows a calf born unexpectedly on Christmas day!  
Quite a surprise for me when I fed the cattle on Christmas morning,  (but a nice one :) )
I can report that mother and daughter are both doing well.  

As I write this it is freezing hard and snowing outside, and summer seems a long way away. 
The cows water bowls froze during the night and it took most of the morning to thaw everything out again, so fingers crossed they are still running tomorrow.
In spite of the snow and ice the milk lorry still arrives in the yard every morning to collect the Daisy Made milk and the cows are still filling the tank oblivious to the cold weather, as long as their feed troughs are full and they have a nice cosy bed they are as happy as cows can be. 
TTFN Farmer Dave.