Summertime is always busy on any farm, with the harvesting of crops, hay and silage to feed animals over the winter months. Our schedule at CFL is no different, adding Supporters' Day and two agricultural shows, our summer months seem extra busy.
Our first show was Lincoln Show in June. We took a shearling ram and 2 shearling ewes, as well as 9 beneficiaries! I wanted to give everyone who attends the project the opportunity to attend the show this year as it was our first show in 3 years. It was a logistical achievement picking them up from all over Leeds at 6am. They were all there waiting, raring to go! Some were experiencing a show for the first time.
We had a great day out. Everyone who wanted to had the opportunity of exhibiting our sheep in the ring and they did us proud, winning a first place with the ram who went on to win overall male champion along with a second and fourth position with our ewes. We got a chance to relax a bit in the afternoon looking around the animals, stalls and the entertainment in the main ring.
The next day, back at the farm we were straight into cleaning out the big barn in preparation for Supporters' Day. It's all hands on deck getting a barn 2 feet deep in cow manure, mucked out, dismantling gates and then washing it down so it was clean enough to eat your dinner off! The guys always enjoy telling people just how dirty the barn was just a couple of weeks before Supporters' Day.
Supporters’ Day was a fantastic day, welcoming old friends back to the farm and meeting new people. A few of the guys came on the day and helped with the tractor rides and displaying some of our lambs.
We were then into our hay and silage making, again a busy time needing plenty of hands to load bales onto trailers then again stacking in the barn. Thankfully we were blessed with a week of fine dry weather, which is essential for making good quality hay. We got all our silage done and three-quarters of our hay done which has filled up our hay barn again.
We managed to get the hay done before the heat wave struck. It would have been unbearable stacking hay in that heat. Previously, we have had to take shelter in the barn from heavy rain or very cold weather but not because of the heat. We made the most of the time undercover by getting the sheep ready for Driffield Show the following day, which thankfully had cooled down by then.
Again, we had another good turnout of guys and another successful, memorable day out winning 3 firsts, 3 seconds, 1 third and overall reserve champion with one of our shearling ewes.
We thank our Heavenly Father for all He had provided here at Caring For Life to enable the Agri project to care for the creation He has made. Please pray that all we do on the project points our precious beneficiaries to the Lord of the harvest.
Steve Charlesworth, Agricultural Project Leader