Latest News
Latest News
UK Jersey Society AGM 10th August 2017
We have just held the 134th Annual General Meeting for the UK Jersey Cattle Society at Manor Farm, having the meeting in our Garage followed by a look around our dry cows with lunch afterwards and then a herd visit looking at youngstock on the farm stead and then the milking cows. It was an excellent day with both the meeting going well and a gorgeous sunny afternoon to look around the cows. Thomas gave an overview of the farm and both he and Richard Saxby our herd manager took questions in an open forum. Lots of discussions around which bulls to use, the system we have in place, how we try to control Johnes disease, classification of the cows etc were all had whilst in the field! Thank you to UK Jersey Society for allowing us to host this event and give us a chance to showcase our herd.
Great Yorkshire Show July 2017
This year we headed back to Harrogate for the Great Yorkshire Show, this year taking 3 Thurlstone cows and 4 Saxown cows. Tuesday’s showday was a horrible wet day so not many pictures!! But we got very wet and had a very successful day. Thurlstone David Donna 2 was Second in the Maiden heifer class on the Tuesday but went onto win the Interbreed Dairy Maiden Heifer (born in 2016 before 31 May) on the Wednesday judging. Thurlstone Valente Jesabel came second in the junior heifer in milk class, Saxown Chief Cash 92 came 3rd in the In Calf Heifer class and Saxown Excite Heidi 11 (No. 516) won the In Calf Cow class. Saxown Tyler Heidi 17 (No.561) won Intermediate Cow and went on to win Exhibitor Bred Champion (Reserve Champion overall), Saxown Miles Angel 2 (No. 530) came third in the Production and Inspection class and The Saxown team came third in the Group of Three.
The milk from Thurlstone Burgandy also won the Best Milk by an individual cow!
Open Farm Sunday 11th June 2017
So we opened up the gates to the public on Sunday 11th June for Open Farm Sunday. We opened at 10.30 and couldn’t quite believe that in the first 15 minutes we had 70 people through the gate! Especially as I thought most people would come over lunchtime we were still putting up a few posters!
What a day though we had 402 visitors and probably more questions and conversations than any of us could have imagined. The visitors got the chance to view cows being milked, calves being fed, a walk through the milk cows on guided tours (due to the river for H&S reasons), guess the weight of the calf, look, smell and feel the food that the cows eat, guess the name of the calf, try to milk a wooden cow (our daughter Ava still loves playing with this!!), guess the number of balloons in the tractor, a machinery display with tractors, forage box, Keenan, telehandler, cattle wagon, mobile race system and then relax with a cup of tea and cake!
Deliciouslyorkshire Taste Awards 2nd November 2016
Claire has just had our second gorgeous baby girl Zara so Thomas took his dad John to the Taste Awards Dinner in Harrogate as we had been shortlisted for the Best Beverage Award. As you can imagine the canapés and dinner were amazing (according to Thomas!) given the best local produce was being used. Then the awards themselves ….. well you would not believe as neither could we but Manor Farm Jersey Milk won the Best Beverage award up against any non alcoholic Beverage in Yorkshire!! What an amazing achievement for our milk which we started selling through a vending machine back in June 2016!
Latest News
UK Jersey Society AGM 10th August 2017
We have just held the 134th Annual General Meeting for the UK Jersey Cattle Society at Manor Farm, having the meeting in our Garage followed by a look around our dry cows with lunch afterwards and then a herd visit looking at youngstock on the farm stead and then the milking cows. It was an excellent day with both the meeting going well and a gorgeous sunny afternoon to look around the cows. Thomas gave an overview of the farm and both he and Richard Saxby our herd manager took questions in an open forum. Lots of discussions around which bulls to use, the system we have in place, how we try to control Johnes disease, classification of the cows etc were all had whilst in the field! Thank you to UK Jersey Society for allowing us to host this event and give us a chance to showcase our herd.
Great Yorkshire Show July 2017
This year we headed back to Harrogate for the Great Yorkshire Show, this year taking 3 Thurlstone cows and 4 Saxown cows. Tuesday’s showday was a horrible wet day so not many pictures!! But we got very wet and had a very successful day. Thurlstone David Donna 2 was Second in the Maiden heifer class on the Tuesday but went onto win the Interbreed Dairy Maiden Heifer (born in 2016 before 31 May) on the Wednesday judging. Thurlstone Valente Jesabel came second in the junior heifer in milk class, Saxown Chief Cash 92 came 3rd in the In Calf Heifer class and Saxown Excite Heidi 11 (No. 516) won the In Calf Cow class. Saxown Tyler Heidi 17 (No.561) won Intermediate Cow and went on to win Exhibitor Bred Champion (Reserve Champion overall), Saxown Miles Angel 2 (No. 530) came third in the Production and Inspection class and The Saxown team came third in the Group of Three.
The milk from Thurlstone Burgandy also won the Best Milk by an individual cow!
Open Farm Sunday 11th June 2017
So we opened up the gates to the public on Sunday 11th June for Open Farm Sunday. We opened at 10.30 and couldn’t quite believe that in the first 15 minutes we had 70 people through the gate! Especially as I thought most people would come over lunchtime we were still putting up a few posters!
What a day though we had 402 visitors and probably more questions and conversations than any of us could have imagined. The visitors got the chance to view cows being milked, calves being fed, a walk through the milk cows on guided tours (due to the river for H&S reasons), guess the weight of the calf, look, smell and feel the food that the cows eat, guess the name of the calf, try to milk a wooden cow (our daughter Ava still loves playing with this!!), guess the number of balloons in the tractor, a machinery display with tractors, forage box, Keenan, telehandler, cattle wagon, mobile race system and then relax with a cup of tea and cake!
Deliciouslyorkshire Taste Awards 2nd November 2016
Claire has just had our second gorgeous baby girl Zara so Thomas took his dad John to the Taste Awards Dinner in Harrogate as we had been shortlisted for the Best Beverage Award. As you can imagine the canapés and dinner were amazing (according to Thomas!) given the best local produce was being used. Then the awards themselves ….. well you would not believe as neither could we but Manor Farm Jersey Milk won the Best Beverage award up against any non alcoholic Beverage in Yorkshire!! What an amazing achievement for our milk which we started selling through a vending machine back in June 2016!
The Birth of Zara Caitlin Dickinson - 5th October 2016
Thomas and Claire are pleased to annouce the birth of their second daughter Zara Caitlin born at 10.02am on 5th October 2016 weighing 7lb 3oz. Despite having to have an emergency c section both Claire and Zara are both doing really well. Ava is thrilled to be a big sister too!
Great Yorkshire Show 2016
Back in Harrogate for another year and we took another great team of animals from both Thurlstone and Saxown herds. We got the following results; Thurlstone Legacy Olga won the Heifer in calf, Thurlstone Impuls Calendula came second in the dry cow class, Thurlstone David Jesabel came second in the in milk heifer class and was the exhibitor bred junior champion (reserve junior champion). Richard took both first and second place in the intermediate cow in milk with Saxown Tyler Heidi 17 coming first followed by Saxown Miles Angel 2. The Senior Cow in milk class was also won by Richard’s Saxown Excite Heidi 11 and went on to win Exhibitor Bred Champion (reserve champion overall). The Group of 3’s were won by the Saxown herd followed in second by Thurlstone.
We took our Manor Farm Jersey Milk for the first time to the Yorkshire Show and entered it into the Dairy and Cheese Show. Our milk won the Best Channel Island Milk and then went on to win the Best Milk in Show award which we were over the moon about!
