ON THE FARM
The wet September has given our grass a second lease of life. The parched brown fields of August seem a distant memory as these same fields are unrecognisable now: they have had the best part of six inches of rain and are lush with new dark green grass growth. The cows’ milk yield has also increased slightly as a result. The autumn flush of grass is always a boost to grazing, but as each day loses
nearly five minutes of daylight around the autumn equinox, the grass loses valuable hours of sunshine. This leads to less photosynthesis, less sugars in the grass leaf, and less energy in the grass for the cows to make milk from. Therefore, as autumn progresses, and grass becomes weaker, we need to supplement our cows’ daily feeding with some higher energy food to maintain their milk production, otherwise we won't have enough milk for all our customers! To do this, we will start feeding some of our grass silage which was made in late June. This form of conserved grass was made when there was plenty of lovely sunshine, the grass was very nutritious and will be a better feed than the low energy late autumn grass as we go into October.
CAMPSITE ON THE FARM
The campsite we operated in August was a great success. Campers loved the site, with its views and the cows walking past at milking times morning and evening. Other feedback we had was how people loved camping on a working farm completely away from any sign of civilisation, but still only 20 minutes’ walk from Hailsham town centre, where they did their shopping and dined in local restaurants. This winter we will be applying for full planning permission for the campsite, so that hopefully we will be able to offer the campsite for a full season next year instead of the maximum of 28 days camping we are currently allowed without planning permission. If you are interested in camping here next year or have friends or family that are looking to camp in East Sussex, please get in touch. For further information, please contact camping@hookandson.co.uk
GLASS BOTTLES
The return rate for our glass milk bottles, cream, yoghurt and ghee jars is generally very good, although there are some exceptions. For those of you having glass jars and bottles, please put them out for our milkman to collect when they deliver to you. It is so important for us that we can reuse these jars and bottles, as the price of glass is still rising. Many thanks for all the glass that you do return to us, especially when the glass jars and milk bottles are put out and returned to your milkman so clean!
TESTIMONIALS
As we near the launch of our new website, we will have a page dedicated to customer testimonials – so we want to hear from you!
In a few sentences or short paragraph, share your experience of using your Hook & Son produce, especially any health benefits you have noticed, and why you would recommend our products to new customers.
Send your testimonials to us at joe@hookandson.co.uk, or simply message us on Instagram/Facebook, including your name and the town where you live. It would be very much appreciated.
NEXT MONTH'S INVOICES
Next month we will be sending our invoices from new accounting software as we are swapping to Xero from Sage. The consequence of this will be that we are no longer able to offer a Sage Pay button on the invoice for you to be able to pay online by card; payment will have to be made by BACS to the account details shown, quoting your account number as a reference. Don’t forget, if you would like to make things easier you can swap to a direct debit payment. Please contact the office on sales@hookandson.co.uk as we will be happy to send you a link from GoCardless to set up the monthly direct debit payment.
Best wishes with thanks for all your support for our farm. From Phil and Marilyn, Steve and Claire, and all of us at Hook & Son
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