The Cycle Continues

You can’t get away from the reality that we have our massive menagerie mainly for the purpose of producing lovely meat products, and as lambing draws to a close, the processing cycle continues. Keith set off to Dingwall abattoir on Monday morning at 5am with 5 two year old soay wedders and 3 fourteen month old iron age pigs. At the moment we have no option but to take our animals to Dingwall – there is a massive shortage of abattoirs in the highlands, and Dingwall is our nearest – we are, however, trying to address this problem at present, so watch this space. We believe the solution for remote and highland regions lies in the development of small scale on farm slaughter facilities, and this is what we are pursuing. In the mean time, we will be getting the carcasses back from Dingwall, whole, on Thursday, and will be processing into roasts, sausages, bacon, ham and mutton over the weekend – ready for distribution early next week and gathering hall market in Portree the following Friday. In between times, we are moving the animals around to their summer grazing areas, and we’ll be sowing carrots and potatoes in our field where the pigs have been for the last few months. Our hay field is now shut off from grazing, and will be left to grow until late August when we will cut it for silage/hay/haylidge – all weather dependent!

We’ve still lots of lambs and some calves to keep a close eye on, and I’ve taken some video of the soay lambs at play in the field whilst their mothers were being fed. They are amazing little beings (and so cute too!) so inquisitive and very funny to watch at play racing up and down the banks.