Meet Your Neighbour

With both calving and lambing now in full swing, there are plenty of new additions to look after. Maternity wings at Lochty and North Baldutho are now a hive of activity and we welcome two new helpers, Dean and Maggie. In order to provide 24 hour care, Maggie will be night lambing and calving, with Dean on daytime – helping Ewan, Cameron, Reece and Iestyn.

Antibiotic resistance is becoming more of a hot topic, with data showing bacteria with significant resistance to several groups of antibiotics in human treatment. As a result, farm vets are being encouraged to spend more time with farmers to reduce usage on farm. Being organic, does not mean we can’t use antibiotics, but the principles of understanding why we need them and looking at ways to eliminate their use is vital. When an animal has an injury from bad calving or lambing, or has an infection such as mastitis, we use antibiotics to treat the issue. Not to do so would cause the animal un-necessary suffering. However, by keeping good records over the seasons, we can build a picture of why the issue occurred in the first place and avoid it happening again. A pre-start meeting with Ainslie from Eden Vets held on farm last month was a great chance to discuss and re-enforce the importance of responsible medicine use.

Last month, we held a “meet your neighbour” event at Bowhouse, inviting the business occupiers on the estate to meet each other and introduce themselves. The shear diversity of businesses was impressive and common themes were repeated by many.

1. Quality over quantity – most businesses were not looking for expansion, although there was demand for their services. Instead, they were more interested in maintaining the quality of service.
2. Expertise – The breadth of expertise was notable, with several of the businesses operating globally and with global reputation for excellence.
3. Age and demographics – Diverse and with so many accents from different parts of the country and globe, they have come to the East Neuk for the quality of life and ability to live and work in a place with shared values.

 

 

The following week, 190 school children descended on Bowhouse to lean about where their food comes from through RHET. The local children were both enthusiastic and well informed. With 14 of the team from Balcaskie taking part, there was a great opportunity to explain what each of them did and how our food gets to the shelf.

The next site for development of business units at Balcormo Farm will begin soon, renovating redundant farm buildings into workshops and offices. The site will require a significant infrastructure upgrade to provide drainage, power, water, heat and internet – so the disruption will turn the site into a battlefield before we can begin to put it back together. Several businesses have already expressed an interest in the units and we are looking forward to seeing the progress of another business hub at Balcaksie.