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 Trenake Farmland Our story starts in the 300 acres of outstanding pasture land that surrounds Trenake Manor Farm in the lovely Cornish countryside. As far as possible we try to be self sufficient in the way we maintain and feed our herd of approaching 300 magnificent Friesian milking cows. Our meadows are used to graze the herd on sweet lush grass and to grow / harvest Hay, Silage, Maize and Corn. Three employees, one of whom has been with the farm for over 40 years since he left school, help members of the family to seed, harvest, milk, mill and generally Maintain our historic farm which has been in the Philp family for some five generations. The picture above shows some of the picturesque scenery that surrounds the farmland and highlights some of the farms pasture land.
To supplement the diet and to help increase the milk yield of our herd we have also started fairly recently to grow Maize in some of the fields. About August each year the Maize will reach a height of around six feet and one enterprising neighbor has made a field of Maize crop similar to our own into a magnificent Maze of Maize. Can you spot the maize fairies? In other fields around August again we begin the essential task of harvesting the corn ( Wheat and Barley). There are always several fields covering 70 acres to be attacked by the John Deere combine harvester shown below and is shown being driven by one of the employees who has been with the farm for more years than he may care to admit too.
In days gone by this work would have been have been done manually with sickle scythes, threshed and bailed by farm labourers hand. The whole process being more labour intensive than today where the combine is seen here cutting and threshing as it travels the field at a steady rate. Air conditioned and filtered cabs equipped with two way radios bring the whole process into the 21st Century.
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However we
here at Trenake like to keep the old traditions alive and to this day will
still provide the farmhands and the family with traditional harvest feast
in the fields during and after the harvesting process.
Once the combine has done its work a bailer machine drawn by a John Deere tractor will collect and bail the remaining straw. Whist in earlier days we would have arranged this on to hayricks to build into haystacks. These days the bailer can place the straw into small or larger bails ready for bedding for the farms horses or to more efficient hay rounds / swirls for the herd. More machinery now lifts and transports the straw bails for storage in the many farm buildings that surround the farmland. The corn fresh from threshing is transferred every second cut by the combine into the waiting trailer and is then taken directly to be stored as soon as possible to avoid it getting wet and ready for the milling process.
Trenake harvest ready for transfer by screw lift Of course all this is only only the start of the story and only goes to feed feed our primary needs in feeding the milking herd shown below delivering their milk under the watchful eye of our trusted and reliable herdsman James.
James will carry out this task twice a day every day of the year at 4am and again at 3pm to extract 7000 litres per day or TWO MILLION litres per year. Residents are welcome to view either of the milkings. James also keeps a computerised record of the milking yields and other important information about each and every cow to ensure they produce the maximum amount of milk whilst maintaining their health and happiness. The 300 acres of pasture and farmland that keeps the herd so happy and content are seen very well from an aerial picture shown below.
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