Wild Dorset
RUMINATIONS ON GRAZING Adam & Ellen Simon, Tamarisk Farm
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here’s an old saying that “the best manure is the farmer’s boot”, meaning that careful and frequent observation of your fields and crops is the key to farming. Every day, come rain or shine, we visit our grazing animals spread around the farm to see them all and make sure they are well. We observe how many are relaxing and chewing the cud, whether they look well-fed and contented or whether they are noisily
34 | Bridport Times | June 2018
complaining to us that the grass looks greener in the field next door. While we’re there, we are also looking at what the grazing is like and deciding which field to move the stock to next, and when. We make plans, but nature doesn’t work to timetables and we need to be ready to respond to the unexpected: fields can be too wet to graze, different plants grow at different speeds around