Guest Lecture at Aberystwyth University

Just over a year ago the Aberystwyth Animal and Veterinary Society emailed me about giving a lecture on Studying Veterinary Medicine in Europe.

I did my Animal Science degree in Aber and lots of people on my course went on to study vet med, they’ve now started a Veterinary Biosciences degree so even more students are wanting to do similar.

I basically spoke about my experiences, the four or five vet schools I’ve visited in Europe and how the degrees overlap and getting compensations.

It was great to be back in Aber but so much has changed since I lived there!

Poultry Dispatch, Pluck & Gut Course

I headed back to Wales this weekend to run another Poultry Dispatch, Pluck & Gut course. I started doing them about 5 years ago now after friends asked me to show them how to prepare excess cockerels for the table and it's grown from there.

We drove down on Sunday and stayed in an awesome little cottage - the previous tenant was a vet and the landlords dad was a vet, which was a nice little coincidence.

The course was held at Denmark Farm Conservation Centre just outside Lampeter which was a great venue.

I had eleven attendees, so one of the biggest courses yet, who all dispatched two chickens, learnt how to dry and wet pluck, skin and joint a bird and then how to gut them. 

They take the second bird home un-eviscerated to hang and practice the gutting process again.

Welsh Poultry Dispatch Course

I've been back to Aber this weekend to run another poultry dispatch course.

The weather was a bit miserable on the drive up but as soon as I hit Wales the sun came out and I wished I'd never left...

We had 5 people on the course which was a good number - enough so people were able to chat amongst themselves while I helped others and they could all ask questions as we went along.

We dispatched and plucked in Angela's next goat shed which was really bright and airy. Ideal for the goats and ideal for the course!

Then after cake and a break we moved into The Tavern for the gutting.

I'll spare you all the gorey dissection pictures but I did take loads to help people gut at home.

Looks pretty good considering he was running around a field this morning, even if I so say so myself!

I went into Aber on the way home and drove down seafront.

It's all changed following the storms earlier in the year but they've done really well to get it back to how it was. Obviously the band stand is gone and a few walls have yet to be rebuilt but I felt at home being back in Aber and can't wait for my next visit!

Dr Chicken with The Rookies in Country Smallholding

I went over to Helpless Homestead in Machynlleth in July to help them dispatch some of their poultry.
They had a batch of Ross Cobbs but we did a couple of Aylesbury drakes.

They write as The Rookies in Country Smallholding and the article was published in the October issue:

Poultry Dispatch Course in Wales

I ran a Dispatch, Pluck and Gut course this weekend in Aberystwyth and had a great time.

We ended up with 5 people on the course and then as families arrived later on we had 11 plus us for the BBQ.

The course went well, everyone seemed to enjoy it and feedback has been really good.

We dispatched in Angela's new goat shed and hung the chickens from beams:


Then went into the mock Medieval Tavern for gutting.

We spatchcocked and BBQ'd the chickens and ate them out on the decking

Then when I got home I roasted mine...

...was the best roast chicken ever!!

It sounds corny but you really can taste the difference between homegrown and supermarket chickenl I found it cooked much quicker too.

Really looking forward to the next course on 6th October at Cotswold Chickens now!

Dissertation

Can I use this photo in my Dissertation to sum up my Materials and Methods section?

Meet Spike...

I've stayed in Aber over the holidays to carry on Lambing nights so thought it would be an ideal time to get some more practice in at the vets too.

It's worked really well as I've been finishing Lambing at 7, getting a couple hours sleep and going to the Vets then getting another few hours sleep after seeing practice before starting Lambing again at 8.
I've had a lot of caffeine to keep me going this week but its been good to see surgery!

I saw we had Spike booked in for surgery and was expecting a Rottie or Mastif, then in bounds this bundle of fluff...

He was in as he had an obstruction in his gut so Kate had to do a foreign body removal operation.

They found exactly what they were looking for, which turned out to be part of his lead, and then as they were suturing up Kate showed me a clever little trick.

When closing up the intestinal wall she pulled the two ends of the incision together and sutured perpendicular to how she'd cut it so that the lumen isn't restricted afterwards which could lead to further blockages.

Poultry Red Mite - Dermanyssus Gallinae

I found Poultry Red Mite (Dermanyssus gallinae) in the chicken coops earlier in the year, and me being me decided I needed to get some High Res photos of them, and then have a look at them under my USB digital microscope!

Got a few photos, some of the best ones are here...
(Click to enlarge)

Will be used for Uni work so please don't use them without my permission ;)

Cambridge Agric Tour; Pigs

The sows farrow in these outdoor units which are bedded down with deep straw. When they're due to farrow they nest down and the little windows at the back means the farmers are able to check on them easily without disturbing her.

 Once the piglets are a couple days old they'll be up and about, running around the sty and outside.

 The sows had loads of room separated off by electric fences which the piglets could run underneath if they really wanted to but they tended to stick close to mom and not venture too far.

 After about a month the piglets were weaned and moved into groups with big automatic drinkers and feeders which they soon got used to and had a lot of space to run around and wallow in.

 You can see here the size of the field they were in and how much space the pigs had, this was just once of the fields they kept - they had tens of fields like this full of pigs.

 Everything is arranged like a clock around the central unit in the middle so if the pigs need to be handled they can just open one of the gates and herd them into the middle making it stress free and easy for the staff and the pigs.

The middle unit had lots of gates and panels to allow them to separate groups of pigs by size, sex or for any other reason easily then back up a trailer to load them straight into to move them off site or for slaughter.

Cambridge: Agric Tour

I've been to Cambridge this week on an Agric Tour to go and see loads of farms, demo farms and various new enterprising businesses.

Lots of them are LEAF demo farms (Linking Environment And Farming) so are the best of the best, and supply to Waitrose, Harvey Nichols, Harrods and other places like that.

On the way down on Tues we stopped at Bottom Farm to see Duncan Farrington who makes Mellow Yellow - Rapeseed oil, salad dressing, mayo and things like that for Waitrose and farm shops.

On Wednesday we went to G's who grow salad. They grow it from seed in big plastic trays in huuge greenhouses made from the same stuff as the Eden Project, then it gets planted out. They grow 80million lettuce each year in the greenhouse, then they buy more in from Chichester and Hull for when they plant into the ground!

Then they're planted out with a siik machine they built on-farm...

Wednesday afternoon we went to another LEAF farm that grow Organic and Conventional vegetables. We got on a trailer on the back of a tractor and he drove us round the farm!
They have to irrigate the crops (for quality rather than yield) and it costs £30,000 a week! Saw all of Waitroses organic red onions for this year in one field, and 25% of their conventional red onions.

Thursday morning we went to Thrift Farms to see Robert Law who was Farmers Weekly's "Farmer of the Year 2006" and grows crops and has sheep - 300 pet lambs this year!
Some of his sheep are on land owned by OFCOM so they're walking around the monitoring pylons and things! He has to be careful with fencing up there and can't use electric fencing 'cos it interferes with their equipment.

Thursday afternoon we went to Midloe Grange Farm to see more wheat. We were walking through a field of wheat and saw a baby hare just sat there...

Free Range Laying Hens visit

I went to lectures this afternoon followed by a visit to a "Free Range Egg Production Unit" ...Birchgrove Welsh Free Range eggs out near Trawscoed.

We were given bio-security overalls + boot covers, shown around the sheds and stroked the chickens!
There were chain feeders and auto drinkers throughout the sheds so they had constant access to feed with nest boxes along one side which were astroturfed with eggs rolling off and onto a conveyor belt.

Everything was suspended from the ceiling so that they can push a button and all the feeders, drinkers and nest boxes all raise up to the roof, the slatted boxes you can see down the middle are collapsed, and they can drive a mini quad/tractor in to push out all the dirty bedding!

The eggs are laid in the astro turf nest boxes in the middle of the shed, which rolls along like a conveyor belt + the eggs roll out:

They have the grading, stamping and packaging machines there and distribute themselves all over Wales and around Aberystwyth in retail stores.

Out of the shed and outside to the range:

They have 10 acres for 3000 chickens - legislation allows double that but there was a lot of space for them outside..

We were able toask questions at the end - I was interested in vaccinations and worming regime they used, she couldn't remember what they used until I prompted her with Flubenvet? - "Yes! that's it!"

They have a specialist poultry vet that flies around the UK in a helicopter he's so much in demand!!!