South East Branch

2011 Events

Goodwood Estate Visit

On the 25th of June, South East Suffolks, along with the Southdown Sheep Society, took a journey to the glorious Goodwood estate for a very interesting farm tour. The Goodwood estate consists of 12,000 acres of the Southdowns and, although most famous for its racing and motorsport events, also has a huge variety of agricultural enterprises, all of which are fully organic. Farm shepherd, Nick Page, hosted the viewing of his flock of 900 mules and gave us a captivating discussion on how the farm produces fully organic meat for its farm shop by crossing Suffolk rams onto North Country Mules and then using this offspring on Southdown rams to produce a well fleshed butchers lamb. The viewing of the sheep, including the flock of 35 pedigree Southdowns, was followed by a delicious lunch completely made from their own produce, which was much appreciated by all who attended.

In the afternoon, a tractor tour took us farther afield through the grounds being prepared for the Estate's Festival of Speed, during which Nick explained the complications he faces due to such diversifications of the land. The tour continued out to the herd of Sussex cattle used to produce the meat sold in the Estate's farm shop and then onto the Dairy herd of Sussex cross dairy shorthorn cattle. The visit then finished off with some fresh cakes and a cream tea.

The utmost thanks go to both Nick Page and Tim Hassell for hosting the event and everyone else who helped make the visit a really great and interesting day out.

Forthcoming Shows

A list can be seen here

Other Events

EBLEX runs events around the country, including Lamb Selection training days, Sheep talks, etc. For details, see http://events.eblex.org.uk/index.asp?08032005