Today the pheasants and partridges at Mornacott breathed a sigh of relief as another very successful shooting season drew to a close. February also starts the evaluation process, looking back over the season and actively planning for the next one. It will now only be a few weeks until the first eggs are laid, collected and incubated and preparations for the forthcoming season will be well and truly underway. 

Mornacott has, like the rest of the country, been suffering from the extreme weather conditions. While the snow looks very pretty it is very much business as usual here on the farm, making sure that the livestock are tended and cared for, this is when the stocks of hay and silage cut this summer come in very useful! 

The first salmon were seen in the river today thanks to the heavy rain that we had last week which enabled them to make the long journey up river from the sea.

The salmon are returning to their birth place which they do every autumn. They will spend the next few weeks recovering from their long journey before they move on to shallow stretches of the river where they will dig a shallow pit with their tails to lay their eggs.

The shallow stretches of the River Yeo which run through Mornacott will keep their eggs supplied with a constant supply oxygenated water until they hatch six weeks later. 

The yearly battle of the Red deer stags started today. At first light stags were heard roaring on South Hill, which was followed by the impressive sight of three large stags fighting for the rights to a group of twenty hinds.

By midday the arguments must have been settled because the biggest of the three stags was seen lying on the hillside with his hinds as if nothing had happened. 

Today saw the completion of the dry stone walling project around the house, Barn Cottage and the Shootroom. Six months in the doing the project has brought about the complete renovation of the old Devon banks with over 200 metres of vertical stone walling replaced or repaired in traditional style.

The works yielded up a variety of interesting finds in the hedges and behind the old crumbling walls which give an interesting insight into the lifestyle and tastes of several centuries gone by. 

In North Devon water can often be a problem. Usually there’s too much of it! In this instance however there was one 100 acre block of land that was served only by two natural drinking points limiting the effective use of land for our Red Ruby cattle.

Two ‘rings’ have now been installed adjacent to one of the drinking points creating a reservoir from which to pump water to two 10,000 gallon tanks which now feed water troughs in every field on the previously ‘dry’ land.