At Glensaugh continuing fine weather has allowed us to make good progress with selling finished lambs. Cows and calves have had their final move of the season prior to weaning and sale in early October. The deer calves have been weaned and are now housed for the winter. At the same time hinds on the WP 3.6.2 project have been gathered to allow for radio tracking collars to be serviced.

Management remains firmly focussed on the delivery of the SRDP programme. Delivery of the public access work is well under way and is also being worked on internally by David Riley, Pat Carnegie and David Donnelly. Fencing is continuing for woodland planting in early 2010 and additional proposals are now lodged with the Forestry Commission. Forestry “meets multiple objectives” (their jargon) and is being actively promoted and appears to be well funded. This includes biomass heating and we have been encouraged to revisit this with respect to Glensaugh Lodge where an earlier proposal was shelved on the grounds of cost. The revival of this project has resulted in the submission of our third SRDP application.

While managing capital works takes time and attention we haven’t forgotten that we’re still farming and running a research station. The underpinning activity to all our work is growing grass. We have recently purchased a piece of kit called a Sward Lifter. This has three legs which open a slit in the soil to a depth of about 250 mm to relieve surface compaction and improve drainage through the soil profile. We proved that some surface ponding is due to impeded drainage on the surface (rather than a high water table) when we ripped through a long term puddle in the Bows field. The effect was rather like emptying a bath tub as the water rapidly drained away. The expected benefit of the operation will be to improve winter drainage with a resulting earlier spring growth, and also to aerate the soil profile which will have a positive impact on soil chemistry and plant growth.