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The Sustainable Landuse Company NEWSLETTER
Latest News from us and other interesting happenings !!!
Letterkenny Farmer's Market23rd August 2004
There is now a farmers market in Letterkenny every 2 weeks at the Millennium
Court in Railwaystreet (Lower Road) and we have a vegetable stand there.
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News ArchiveOctober 2002 
SORRY, the news here is not very new, as there is nobody available to us who takes care
about it. Sorry again !!! October 2002  2nd of February 2001  5th of April 2001 Great weather, we had. While it is cold and wet today we take this opportunity to update you about the happenings during last month. We had loads of sunny days, not too warm, but still good enough to do work outside.People: Erin, the American girl who worked with us left here to do more travelling of Europe. We was not long alone until Denise and Breezy arrived here to sniff into the sort of lifestyle and work we do here. They just arrived here when we started to plant trees. That's exactly what they are doing mostly in the moment. Beside that, the two of them took control over the cow byre and the Food- and Mouth-Diseases disinfectant procedure. And there is always small little job between for them. Vegetables: We have prepared some garden plots to out plant vegetables propagated in our polythene tunnels. The soil temperature outside is just at the edge where growth is possible. Different inside the tunnels; Lettuce is growing and we already harvested some spinach. Under protection some variety of lettuce like Lambslettuce and Winterpostelain was growing all winter. Not much, but still enough to keep our Box-Customers happy with their demand. Livestock: The second calf this year was born. Shorthorn Cow, Shorthorn Bull and out came a sturdy bull calf. The cow delivered herself, no assistance was necessary. All we did was watching her. Next Saturday another Shorthorn is due. Usually 4 days before a Cow is due we check her every 4 hours; even at night time. Over the last 10 years we only lost one calf due to calving difficulties. After the Shorthorns our Kerry Cows will calf. Of course we hope for Heifer calves from them because we want to build up our Kerry-Herd. Lambing is in progress, we are half way through. So far, the weather was good to them, they had an easy start in life. However the problem with lambs usually starts later. They will have to go through certain illnesses, same as children do. Our Fowl is fully in production. Hens, Ducks and Geese are laying. Only our male bronze Turkey is a bit lonely, as we have no girlfriends for him. Anybody out there with some spare female bronze Turkeys ??? Let us know. Forestry: For detailed news about the Millennium Forest, look up the"Millennium Forest Page" Planting season is in full swing. We have to replace trees in some of our commercial forestry's as well as some new planting has to be done in the" Millennium Forest". Most of the planting so far was broadleaf's. However the buds are getting ready to open and soon the broadleaf planting will come to an end. After that we do the conifers. It is still early to tell how many of the broadleaf's failed from last years planting. Soon, when the buds are opening up we will know more. Often, after planting, broadleaf's die back and in the following year they produce a complete new shoot. Due to F&M we do not replace in some of our further away forestry's; so next year there will be a bit more to do. Food- and Mouth-Disease: It effects us too. The Markets are still closed; no turnover there. We keep our disinfectant mat fresh. We don't believe that the problem is over yet. As farmers we are used to live with hope. 19th of Februar 2001 
Although it is still pritty chilly the sun has some warm effect to the soil and
we have the first lettuce transplanted in protected areas. The morning and evening chorus of our
Garden Birds is enchanting to hear. They start every morning a bit earlier and every evening a
bit later, meaning the days are getting longer. Our first calf this year was born some days ago.
Roship, our Jersey cow gave birth to a lively bull calf all by herself. No assistance was
required. Our sheep are getting heavy too, the lambing time is not far away.
Slowley but steady our geese did start to lay eggs. This is another sign of springtime.
The sycamores are showing the first buds; hopefully they are not killed of with the next frost.
For the time of the year the weather is is extremly pleasant and try.
We experience now the third week without a big amount of rainfall and our newly installed
electricity creating Hydro-Scheme is short in water. We can't have it both ways !!
2nd of Februar 2001 
The Snowdrops are out. What a great feeling !Everybody is getting these "The Spring is in the air" feeling. Erin, a 20 year old American girl arrived a couple of weeks ago to give us a hand and to learn all about organic farming, sustainable landuse, forestry and self-sufficiency. She is already looking after the cattle, helping in the garden and has a great interest in preparing and preserving of organic food. I suppose this is quite rare for a young girl coming from a country of fast food and outside dining. Outside work in the garden is starting; preparing seedbeds, manuering, making coldframes etc. The last storm blew away the plastic of one of the polythene-tunnels; it has to be fixed before the growing season starts. Plenty of work, anybody out there willing to help ? 28th of September 2000 Feile Shamhna na gCrann or Festival of Trees Crann invites you to join us in celebrating our forests and trees this autumn. The theme 'Our Forests and Trees - The Global Context' reflects the increasing awareness of the importance of our forests in maintaining our global environment. One of the focal points of the year for Crann is the annual Feile Shamhna na gCrann or Festival of Trees. This is a month long festival during which a range of events are organised in different venues throughout the country. These vary from woodland walks and seed collection to poetry and children's events. Donegal Organic Farm Produce invites everybody to join us here in the big Glen of Glenties Co. Donegal on our farm during the first November week to take part in activities at our Nature Trail, Millennium Forest, Tree-Planting and many things more. There are four great feasts in the Celtic year; Samhain, Imbolg, Bealtine and Lunasa. Samhain marks the beginning of the Celtic year and so this year's Feile Shamhna na gCrann coincides with the start of the new Celtic Millennium. 10th of September 2000 ORGANIC FARMING BENEFITS BIODIVERSITY There has been much anecdotal evidence to support the theory that organic means more biodiversity. Now with the publication of the Soil Association document. "The Biodiversity Benefits of Organic farming". A series of studies have been compiled comprising of 13 scientific papers dealing with a wide range of species. These are summarised as follows; ABUNDANCE Plants: five times as much biomass of wild plants in arable fields, including more rare and declining arable plants. Birds: 25% more birds at the field edge, 44% more in- field in Autumn/Winter, 2.2 times as many breeding skylarks and on average more breeding yellowhammers. Invertebrates: 1.6 times as many of the arthropods that comprise bird food; about three times as many spiders in the crop area. DIVERSITY Plants: On arable fields, 57% more wild plant species, two times as many rare or declining wild plant species and several rare species found only on organic farms. Invertebrates: 1-2 times as many spider species in cereal fields. Additionally, in one study organic farming was found to have most of the practices that have been identified as being beneficial to biodiversity on arable land. These include crop rotations with grass leys, mixed spring and autumn sowing, more permanent pasture, no routine use of agro-chemicals, with green manuring as well as set-aside. The biggest increases in diversity were found in-field with 3 times as many butterflies in one study. This is significant because the cropping area represents about 90% of the land area in total. Among other interesting findings were that aphids were reduced on the organic farms with a greater increase in natural predators. The report is available from the Soil Association, U.K. for £lO including P&P. |
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