Stuart Luxton's Farming Diary

As this is the first time I have done this I thought I would introduce myself and our farm:

I am Stuart Luxton and farm on the outskirts of Okehampton, with my parents, Dudley and Frances. We run one of the South West’s largest pedigree herds of Aberdeen Angus cattle (a breed famed for producing the best beef in the world).  These are supplemented by a flock of productive commercial ewes and a flock of ewes grazing on Dartmoor. As a family we also have a farm shop which I run with my wife Lynette in which we retail the beef and lamb we produce along with other local products. As a hobby we enjoy showing cattle when time allows. The highlight of the year was our stock bull Ballathie Emblem (Tiny) winning the ‘Best of Breed’ - Aberdeen Angus - at the South West’s premier livestock show, The Royal Cornwall Show. The lowlight was a positive testing of bovine tuberculosis, which prevented us showing at our local Okehampton show.

Once the winter monsoon finished this year in the spring the weather has since been very kind to the farm.  The animals have had a good summer, possibly a little too dry ay times and a great autumn. All the harvest went well and we have plenty of food for the animals in store to tide us over the winter. The highlight of the harvest was the 20 acres of wheat that yielded just less than 100 tons of grain. If the weather is in your favour farming is easy, if it is against you there, then there can be no more demoralising profession. Unfortunately, there is little we can do to change the weather!

This year has been very busy for the famiily, as well as running the farm and shop we have been erecting a new 15000 square foot building to house cows and calves over the winter months, its been a large project but is satisfyingly nearing completion. It is very important to have good livestock housing around Okehampton, particularly due to our high rainfall  levels, so we need to be able to keep cattle under cover for up to six months of the year.

By the time you read this article, winter will be upon us. All of the autumn calving cows will have had their young. There will be 80 cows and calves living in luxury this winter. Once all the animals are housed for the winter and a routine has been established, we normally see a slight lull in the workload on the farm.   My attention then turns to our farm shop, Farmer Luxtons. We pride ourselves in providing the best in local meats for Christmas. Although the hours are long, the wonderful atmosphere at the shop is great and it gives us such a huge sense of satisfaction when our customers recount how nice their Christmas dinner was.

I hope that you all have a great festive season and that 2017 is a great year.

Stuart Luxton

.