Farmers' blog
Ever wondered why farmers have round bales of black plastic in their fields?
Good food for cows this winter is the short answer but there is more to it than that. As spring turns into summer farmers start cutting grass to feed their cows over the winter. To an urbanite on holiday in the countryside you might be forgiven for thinking that farmers wrap their hay in black plastic to keep it dry. In fact the bales you see are sileage a far more nutritious feed than hay. Sileage is created by the fermentation of grass starved of oxygen.
It’s quite a science as Simon Jones of Lincolnshire Poacher Cheese explains;
‘Once we decide to sileage it takes a week from start to finish and therefore good dry weather is essential to make quality sileage. This year there has not been enough rain so we are suffering for lack of grass and therefore poor yields, although the weather has been perfect for the actual cutting and making. Rain is essential to good growth for the second cut in 6 to 8 weeks time and the third cut 6 to 8 weeks after that.
We have some slurry to put on the grass leys which will help kick-start growth. Making good sileage is down to good weather and attention to detail. You are pickling the grass, which preserves it - not dislike cheese making where bacteria convert the sugars to acid. Well made sileage smells fantastic, sweet, savoury with slight acidic notes and the cows love it. Our cows are fed on sileage all year round, but in winter it forms the bulk of their diet - basically good quality sileage equals good quality cheese and is our most important crop and hence the most stressful time of the year.’
Dairy farmers tend to build a huge mound of sileage rather than individual bales wrapped in plastic, but the process is similar. Such good natural grub keeps a cow healthy for years. Lincolnshire Poacher’s most mature lady ‘Jeannie’ will be 15 on the 1st September and to date has given 125,000 litres of milk or 12.5 tonnes of cheese. She is the oldest lady on the farm with several daughters, grand daughters and great grand daughters.
Not content with just making sileage and the famous Lincolnshire Poacher Cheese, Simon and Tim are keeping themselves busy in other ways as Tim explains;
‘We spend a lot of time thinking about the direction in which we want the business to go. We both feel it's very important for the farm to become as sustainable as possible. We have looked into a number of different schemes that we could undertake and have come to the conclusion that a wind turbine is the most appropriate way forward.
Being on the edge of the Lincolnshire Wolds we are in an exposed spot close to the very windy east coast. We are hoping to install a 250kw turbine which would produce enough electricity for our needs and a little bit extra for us to export a small amount, thereby allowing room for a bit of future growth. (We are involved in the planning process at the moment so if you support such a scheme it would be great to hear from you so we can show the planning department what our customers think of the scheme – email tim@lincolnshirepoachercheese.com).
The prospect of running the farm and producing the cheese using our own wind energy is something we both find very exciting. Other possible projects for the future include installing a methane capture system to literally reduce our emissions and some coppice willow to fire a wood chip boiler.
Over the years we have been blessed with several awards, particularly at the British Cheese Awards. This years event was probably our best ever as not only did we win Best Modern British Cheese up against over 100 others, we also won Best Flavour Added Cheese with our Smoked Poacher. The awards dinner was certainly a night to remember!
It was with some trepidation that we embarked on our new cheese, Lincolnshire Red, as we have rarely tried making anything other than Lincolnshire Poacher in our dairy. The response we have received has been very positive and sales have definitely exceeded our expectations. It all began because we felt that at farmers markets there was a need for a cheese suitable for people who find the Poacher range too strong. It is made to a recipe more akin to a traditional Red Leicester, still using our own raw milk and matured for about six months (as opposed to well over a year for the Poacher). The orange colour is achieved by adding annatto which is a natural colour taken from the seed of the Achiote tree from South and Latin America and widely used in the cheese world.
The cheese is light and nutty with a clean, sometimes sweet finish. Its appeal is broader than we first thought, with milder cheese eaters liking it but also regular Poacher lovers enjoying it for a change. It is available through all of the farmers markets that we attend and a few local delis and farm shops.’
