We are very please to offer a new service to Wheatacre. A delivery service of locally produced food which can be delivered to your barn for your stay. Submit an order from the website www.welovelocalfood.co.uk tell them your arrival date and the food will be awaiting your arrival. Working on the same delivery principals as the supermarkets this service offers only locally produced food from Norfolk & Suffolk. Tasty food without the food miles what could be better or fresher!
As farmers and producers of food we are very excited about this new service, and love the idea that our guests can share in quality food from the local area.

Wishing all past, present and future guests of Wheatacre Hall Barns a very Merry Christmas and a very Prosperous, Healthy and Happy New Year for 2010.

Summer 2009

At last I think hopefully we have seen the last of the heavy rain which we experienced during mid July. The weather in August so far has been very good with only an occasional shower. So BBQ's are lit and my office is often filled with great BBQ smells during the summer evenings.

Harvest is at last well under way Barley and Wheat crops are now being harvested and the straw baled for the livestock on the farm. We also buy in quite a lot of straw from other farms to help over the winter months. Today we hope to cut the grass silage for the last time this year this is winter forage for the cows and is kept in a clamp to mix with maize and a few other crops for the cows.

Some of the cows have been exhibited at the Suffolk, East of England and Royal Norfolk Agricultural Shows in the past few weeks and we have the last show of the season coming up in September the National Dairy Event at Stoneleigh, Warwickshire. The show team have again does us proud at the events this is also due to a lot of hard work from our herdsman, Robert. All cows have to be trained to walk on the halter not an easy task, although some do take to it more easily than others. One of our more successful cows always has an aversion to walking around a show ring on one of the four sides, and has been known to take out the whole floral display at the Dairy Event a slightly embarrassing situation for my husband! All of the family are involved on show days a very exhausting experience!

The ducks which I wrote about in my previous blog are all now fully grown and are all seen regularly walking through the yard and quacking whilst swimming on the ponds! Two new born Egyptian geese were a surprise about three weeks ago as I thought they had finished breeding this year!

The school holidays are now fully upon us and the barns are very busy with children and their families. I look forward to my younger guests coming to the office and telling me of their adventures of the day. Popular place to visit remain Africa Alive and the wonderful Bewilderwood, Framlingham Castle, Pettitts and of course trips to the seaside. The crabbing equipment has been at full use with trips regularly to Walberswick - I wonder just how many crabs the lines have caught in total! Day cruisers, canoes and dingies can be hired from the nearby Waveney River Centre if you prefer a day messing about on the river.

Plans are now well underway for the new Pet's Corner and I hope soon to report the delivery of some Pygmy Goats, Piglets, Chickens and perhaps Guinea Pigs.................Please watch this space!

May 2009

I am writing this blog mid May endeavouring to remember to update my blog more frequently!

We have had a prolonged period of dry weather really since Easter at Wheatacre, great for my guests not so great for the farm. I am at present having to wear two hats one in my office enjoying the good weather with guests discussing great places to visit and the enjoyment of the coast for fine sunny days and the other hat indoors sympathising with my husband on how badly we need the rain for the crops, in fact desperate for the sugar beet which has been laying

dormant now for a few weeks since drilling. It was never said a farmers wife has an easy life!

The fine weather though has certainly help the huge numbers of baby ducks born this spring. All ponds on the farm have great numbers of ducklings enjoying their swim with mum. For our recent visitors all of the mummy ducks sitting near my office hatched off safely - the duck under the car shelter behind Snipe & Woodcock had 5 ducklings and the one in the old tank near the new plants had 11 ducklings. All soon after hatching waddled off to the ponds. For guests who have stayed in Mallard Barn and others that have seen the Egyptian geese at the farm the goslings which are daily visitors to Mallard are now nearly as big as Mum & Dad!

Hopefully you might just maybe able to see the newly hatched ducklings in this picture!

At the barns we are now heading towards the second bank holiday of the month a very busy one! On the farm the maize has now been drilled, last week the first cut of grass silage (winter forage for the cows) was cut and put into clamps and there is the continuation of crop spraying for weeds and ultimately the lead up to harvest. At the end of the month our first county agricultural show takes place - the Suffolk Show so the cows and calves are now being prepared this entails training to walk on a halter, clipped and washed and beautified all ready for the judges. The show team has been selected and grooming starts a cow beauty pageant! On a serious note the cows are judged for their ability to be as near as perfect for their breed type, but as always this is in the eye of the judge on the day!

Well I must do some other work and remember to blog again soon!

We are pleased to inform all guests that all TV's have been upgraded to 32" LCD Freeview sets from mid March.