Here we are nearly into June……. thanks to everyone who keeps an eye on the website and has ordered beef over the past couple of months, we are trying to keep supply going through the year if possible.

Over the weekend we attended the Beccles Food and Drink Festival….now in its 10^th year – it was nice to catch up with customers new and old, despite the rain (in all honesty much needed!) it was a very busy day and we were pleased to sell all our Beltie beef, Bresaola and of course the ever popular goose eggs which always provide a talking point on our stall.

Clive our butcher has been busy cutting our Pasture for Life certified Beltie beef, so we will be starting deliveries from next week onwards. Depending on orders we hope to do a free Norwich and Ipswich delivery towards the end of June. Thanks to those who have already ordered, the website is now fully stocked.

Despite the recent much publicised hike in beef prices ours have remained the same for over 12 months now and we hope you feel they offer you good value. As always we recommend our boxes or beef shares which offer excellent value for money (we are happy to split a beef share for you if you want to buy with a friend), plus of course our multi packs of mince. For those without freezer space who like to shop for small quantities you are welcome to visit the farm (call in advance). We have also now teamed up with Clinks Care Farm in Toft Monks to supply their lovely farm shop with our beef. If you have never been to this shop it is so well worth a visit…at a time when farm shops are popping up everywhere what we love about this one is that all the vegetables, salad, fruit and cut flowers are produced without chemicals on their farm – the quality and prices are very good. They also team up with other genuinely local suppliers like ourselves to stock produce they don’t grow on the farm, you wont find better field to fork.

…and to all those who have been patiently waiting for pies – they are back!! Steve and Lynn our pie makes at Truly Traceable have been busy winning more awards this year ….so although this means we have had a little wait it is definitely worth it!!

The website shop has now been restocked, please order online at www.carrfarm.org.

Thanks to those that have left reviews for us either on social media, our website or email – it is always lovely to know you are enjoying our beef and the feedback really helps us spread the word further afield – so thank you. If you have time to do a google review that seems to have the biggest impact on getting customers to our website – so THANK YOU!!

Earlier in the year I read an interesting article by writer and farmer Patrick Laurie about the seasonality of beef which resonated with me….bear with me here…

As we all know beef like almost every other meat and many fruit and vegetables are now available 365 days of the year in our Supermarkets, it is something we have got used to and now expect. There is very little truly seasonal produce anymore and I think this is to the detriment of the quality of what we buy. Who wouldn’t rather have a sweet sun warmed strawberry picked fresh in the field on hot June afternoon than a tasteless refrigerated berry purporting to be a strawberry in December which has been shipped thousands of miles for our convenience.

One of the reasons we have always kept geese for Christmas and eggs is because of their seasonality. At the Food Fair in Beccles at the weekend the Goose eggs attracted a lot of interest, mainly because of their size. Then conversations follow…we are used to eggs being available all year round so there is some amazement when we explain that goose eggs have a “season” and in fact quite a short one. Tradition states that the geese will start laying on Valentines day (give or take!) but will stop laying in June …so they are available for just 4 months out of 12, and because they only lay for a short window the geese that sit on your Christmas Table are also only available at Christmas.

I had never really thought of this concept in relation to Beef, or in particular our Beef and the way we raise our animals living outside all year and with no supplementary feeding other than grass or hay.

When we take our animals to the abattoir they are “independently graded” under the EUROP classification for confirmation and fat cover. This system was introduced by the EU in the 1980’s and still determines how much a farmer is paid if he sells his animals through the abattoir to a butcher or supermarket. The grading system applies a letter from E to P with E being excellent and P being poor and then a fat cover number from 1 to 5. The best prices are paid for animals falling in the middle of this range an R3, and farmers are rewarded for consistency.

Our belties would usually grade an R or O and fat cover can be very variable from 2 to 5. As we sell directly to our customers the confirmation grading between and O and R makes little difference. Fat cover is important, a carcass with a fat cover of 4 or 5 will be ideal for very long hanging which in turn increases intensity of flavour and tenderness. Whereas a carcass with a fat cover of 2 will be better hung for a shorter time period. By contrast supermarket beef may be hung for 7 to 14 days.

So this brings me back to Patrick Laurie’s article on the seasonality of beef….in medieval times November was the “Beef Season” this is because the grass had failed by then and young animals were at their fattest. In the days before electric refrigeration it would have been madness to kill the animals in the warmer months unless there was a huge gathering of hungry mouths. So killing coincided with the first chills of winter when animals are fat and the weather is cold….and this is exactly what we find on our system.  Our animals come off the marshes in the autumn after a fine summer of lush grass and sunshine with a good cover of fat on their backs…between August and September they will grade between 3 and 5…but at the other end of the year from February to May “the hungry months” they will have used some of their fat reserves to get through the winter and will be grading 2-3. Cattle on commercial enterprises in comparison, will be “finished” usually with grains but also soya, bakery waste and brewers grains so that they do not fall below a fat cover of 3 regardless of the time of year.

So to provide beef throughout the year there will be variations in fat cover, our “fattest” animals will be those between August and February and the “leaner “ ones from March to July….although you may not notice much difference as they will all taste delicious!

At the time of writing we have had a little rain which is much appreciated to get the grass growing so that the cows have plenty to eat in the summer and hay to make for the winter. We are pleased to have some extra marshes down the lane from the farm this year to hopefully keep everyone with plenty to eat. We planted a few hundred metres of hedging over the winter and have been watering so far this spring to try and keep the plants alive. Calving has nearly finished and cows and calves are all doing well, this has been a big relief as a lot of other farmers in the area have experienced calving problems due to Blue Tongue. We still have five left to calve so won’t be taking things for granted yet!
Our two young bulls both passed their Society inspections so will hopefully heading to new homes this summer. We have also sent some of our heifers off to new homes over the past few weeks, but some of them will stay on the farm to join the rest of the herd. We have taken the decision not to attend the Shows with the cattle this year due to being in a TB radial and the Blue Tongue but are looking forward to going to watch and having a more relaxed day.
Geese and Chickens have finally been let out after the Avian Flu restrictions and are loving their freedom, we still have a couple of weeks of goose egg availability (check the Webshop)
We have had our Spring Bird Surveys over the past few weeks, unfortunately the marshes are too dry for the lapwings to stay and nest this year but there are great numbers of smaller birds especially Skylarks and we were pleased to welcome our family of swallows back to start nesting in the stables eaves early in May.

As always thank you for your support and all the best for 2025!
Nicola & David Chapman…and the Belties!

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