It's Been a While!

It’s been a long time since I last wrote a post! I can safely say a lot has happened since then! The farm has continued to progress steadily. Nothing happens at a quick pace in farming. We only get one chance a year to improve our genetics and ensure that we continue to improve and have a happy and healthy flock of sheep and herd of cattle. We have recently purchased a young Welsh Black bull, Morlais Oriel, and I am happy to announce a 100% scanning on his ladies. All ere in calf, also all were served very early. This means our calving period with be condensed and all calves will be of similar ages when growing up. This is a great help from a farm management perspective. We have reduced the sheep numbers, largely due to the labour involved in marinating a healthy flock. The reduction in numbers has ensured that their is more pasture for the livestock, thus in turn ensuring fit ewes to go to the ram. Since my last post I have become a father, and there is now a 5th generation to the Jones family business. Matilda is now 19 months old, and is showing a keen interest in sheep and a fantastic tractor driver. She has no trouble manoeuvring her pink tractor and trailer around the house, and is better than reversing than I am! We opened our first butcher shop in Cardiff at the end of October. This was a big step for the family, but one that we are very passionate about. I take great pride in showcasing our produce and the discussions between customer and farmer are varied and interesting. The response has been positive and we have seen many customers over the past few weeks and many of which are now regular customers. We are specialising in dry aged beef and we also dry age our welsh lamb. We source our pork and poultry locally and ethically. We have partnered up with some Cardiff based businesses and well known faces over the past couple of months. We have teamed up with Got Beef, which specialise in Welsh Black burgers, and have been voted Cardiff’s best burgers. We are very proud to supply ‘Got Beef’ with all their burgers and meaty needs. We also teamed up with ‘Master Chef’ contestant Imran Nathoo. Imran was running a series of pop up events throughout the summer. One of which was in partnership with ‘Meat Promotions Wales’, and we supplied the rolled lamb shoulder for Imran’s spectacular menu. They evening was held on the roof terrace of ‘Jacob’s Market’ and included a screening of the film ‘Chef’. It was a fantastic evening, which we all enjoyed. I will continue to update the blog on a monthly basis, and keep you all informed!