What's On

Below are recent/forthcoming events at Farmer Gow's - we are also beginning to include other local countryside events, which we hope you will enjoy.

Please do give us a call if you would like your own countryside event included.

Date	Event
Summer	details
	Birthday parties held throughout the year. Birthday Parties and Naming Ceremonies ~ leaflet
	farm assistant ~ Steve with Smokey the ferret
July	tractor driver Mark
Mon 7	Dexter cattle move to East Challow for 2 months to see a bull! Due to calve from April 2009.
Tue 22	Day old chicks due
Sat 19 - Tue 2 Sep	Children's workshop ~ Be a Farmer for a Day
Sun 20	Farmer Gow's Farmers' Market ~ 10am - 1pm lots of yummies! Meat, eggs, cheese, fruit & vegetables, bread & ckes, olives, plants & hanging baskets
Thu 26 - Tue 4 Sep	Schools holiday ~ lots of bottle & hand feeding, trailer rides daily - lovely family days out
	Children's workshops ~ Be a Farmer for a Day details
August	Farmer Gow ~ Anne
-Tue 4 Sep	Children's workshops ~ Be a Farmer for a Day details
Wed 6	Southern Electric upgrading local supply - power off all day
available	seasoned hardwood firewood by bag or trailer load - collect/order from the farm shop ready for the autumn and winter
Thu 23	Pollyanna farrowed - 7 gorgeous piglets
Fri 24	day old chicks arrive
Mon 27 - Fri 31	Harvest week ~ collage project & colouring competitions
- Tue 4	Children's workshops ~ Be a Farmer for a Day
new	birthday parties after school during term time. Please see Birthday Party leaflet for further details
Mon 10	Move ewes on to good grass
Thu 13	Shaver Black day old chicks arrive~ these will be our new egg laying chickens. They should start to lay around 6 months old ~ mid-March 2008.
Mon 17	Worm ewes
Mon 24	Molly is weaned of her piglets
Thu 27	Pollyanna is weaned of her piglets
Autumn	details
Firewood ~ order now for this winter’s cosy fires details
What happened in 2007
October
throughout the month	Family Learning ~ collage project & colouring competitions
Mon 22	Foot & Mouth movement restrictions lifted - we just have to worry about Blue Tongue now!
Tue 23	Pollyanna artificially inseminated - then due to farrow 3 months, 3 weeks, 3 days later (114 days) ... 19-24 Feb 08 - 1/2 term week.
Wed 24	Rambo the ram arrives at Farmer Gow's to 'serve' our lady ewes. An exciting day for him - rams regularly serve up to 50 ewes per season. We should start lamming in 156 days time -
Wed 31	Halloween Party for Children leaflet and booking form
November
- Dec	Hedge laying workshops - details
December
1 - 23	Open daily 8.30 am – 6 pm for Christmas Trees ~ cut & pot grown trees, wreaths, stands, decorations ... details
1	Season tickets available for 2008 - also gift vouchers
23 Dec	Closed – reopening at our new home on ~ Tuesday 1 January 2008
Winter	details
January 2008
Tue 1	Farmer Gow's opens at Longcot Road, Fernham.
	season tickets available details
end	Wean heifer (girl) calves
	Children's workshop ~ Be a Farmer for a Day details
Mon 7	children go back to school
February	Birthday parties held throughout the year. Birthday Parties and Naming Ceremonies ~ leaflet
Sat 1	Heptavac ewes - for the immunisation of sheep as an aid in the control of lamb dysentry, pulpy kidney, struck, tetanus, braxy, blackleg, black disease, clostridial metritis and pasteurellosis - bet you didn't know that!!!
Fri 8	Baby chicks arrive - fluffy and gorgeous.
16-24	School Holiday ~ Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire & Wiltshire Colouring competitions, chick handling, bottle feeding, goat walking, egg collecting
Wed 20 - Fri 22	fresh Low Mileage Meat Order Form
end	Beauty and Millie Dexter cows due to calve
March 2008	Birthday parties held throughout the year. Birthday Parties and Naming Ceremonies ~ leaflet
Sun 2	Mothering Sunday ~ a cup of tea and a bun for all mums
Wed 5	9.42 am Beauty gives birth to gorgeous heifer calf 'Beautiful Dawn'. Cow & calf doing well.
	Millie is due within the next week or so.
coming up	School Trips & Playgroup Visits ~ includes further information to help plan your trip, booking form, National Curriculum advice, risk assessments. £300 transport voucher for primary schools in Oxfordshire.
mid month	Shaven Black pullets are 6 months old and will start to lay eggs ~ eggs are tiny at first, about 20 mm in diameter
Sat 15	Lamming started - one set of twins and one set of triplets so far
Fri 21 ~ Mon 24	Easter weekend ~ lambs and kids, Easter egg hunts, trailer rides, Easter quizzes and colouring competitions 11 am & 2 pm ~ Meet the Animals - bottle feeding of lambs and goats - pleny of bottle for all visitors!
Mar/Apr	Worm and dag all sheep before turn out
21 Mar - Sun 20 Apr	Children's workshop ~ Lamming Experience details
Tue 25	Beulah cross ram lambs - Jamie and Norbert born this afternoon.
Thu 27	Beulah cross lambs - Fred and Grace born at 4.20 pm
April	Birthday parties held throughout the year. Birthday Parties and Naming Ceremonies ~ leaflet
	School Trips & Playgroup Visits ~ includes further information to help plan your trip, booking form, National Curriculum advice, risk assessments. £300 transport voucher for primary schools in Oxfordshire.
Wed 2	Triplets born ~ mother and little ones doing well. Paul - white lamb, Jan - black lamb and Emily - black and white. Mum is an 'older mum' so she will keep three lambs for a week to ensure they get their full dose of collostrum. We will then remove the two smallest lambs for hand rearing, leaving her the easier task of raising just one lamb.
21 Mar - Sun 20 Apr	Children's workshop ~ Lamming Experience details
Thu 3	Black twins born at lunchtime ~ Poppy and Primrose
	Twins born early afternoon ~ Violet and Lavender. Lavendar was an assisted birth. Correct presentation is two forefeet followed by head, body, then back end. Lavendar was trying to come out head first.
	Third set of twins born ~ Toby and Elizabeth ~ born just before 3 pm.
Sat 5	Point-to-Point at Barbary Racecourse - fund raising for the John Edgar Trust
Sun 6	A Winter's day in Spring!
Sat 5 - Sun 20 Apr	School Holiday ~ Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire & Wiltshire. Colouring competitions, chick handling, bottle feeding, goat walking, egg collecting
	Lots and lots of lambs and kids to bottle feed!
	Last year's Beulah and Coopworth ewe lambs beginning to lamb - most should lamb only 1 lamb in their first year.
Thu 10	Single ewe lamb born to new Beulah ewe - mother and daughter doing well.
Fri 11	Single ram lamb born to new Coopworth ewe - mother and son doing well.
Wed 16	Single ewe lamb born to new Coopworth ewe - mother and daughter doing well together.
	Lots and lots of lambs and kids to bottle feed during Meet the Animals - 11am and 2pm daily. Also hand feeding of ewes, goats and cows, feed the sow (due to farrow on 6 May), egg collecting, goat and ferret walking. Trailer Rides daily - see timings in the farm shop.
21 Mar - Sun 20 Apr	Children's workshop ~ Lamming Experience details
Wed 23 ~ St George's Day	Faringdon Tourist Information Office (TIC) is running a St George's Day Competition. Click here for details
coming up	School Trips & Playgroup Visits ~ includes further information to help plan your trip, booking form, National Curriculum advice, risk assessments. £300 transport voucher for primary schools in Oxfordshire.
Spring	details
May
	Birthday parties held throughout the year. Birthday Parties and Naming Ceremonies ~ leaflet
	farm assistant ~ Steve with Smokey the ferret
Fri 2	Day old chicks arrive
Bank Holiday Monday	Treasure Hunt & Colouring Competition Lots of bottle feeding ~ egg collecting ~ goat & ferret walking
Tue 6	Pollyanna sow ( Gloucester Old Spot/Oxford Sandy & Black cross) farrowed Piglets are gorgeous and just starting to come out during Meet the Animals.
	Another lamb is born - first time mum is looking well but is rather suprised with her little one!
26-3 Jun	Oxfordshire schools holiday Colouring competitions, treasure hunt, quizzes, chick handling, bottle feeding, goat walking, egg collecting ~ lots of fun to be had
May-June	Sheep shearing
May	Birthday parties held throughout the year. Birthday Parties and Naming Ceremonies ~ leaflet
Sun 11	Family Fun Day at Stanford in the Vale Village Hall
Sun 18	Shrivenham Craft & Entertainment Day at Memorial Hall, Highworth Road ~ 10.30am - 4pm
June	Birthday parties held throughout the year. Birthday Parties and Naming Ceremonies ~ leaflet
	Dawn with Jim lamb
Sun 1	LEAF (Linking Environment and Farming) Open Farm Sunday
Tue 10	Polyanna's piglets due to be weaned
Sun 15	Father's Day ~ cup of tea and a bun for all fathers. Farmer Gow's Farmers Market ~ 10am - 1pm
14-21	Faringdon Ecoweek - loads going on, further information on their web site including a world record attempt 'Hugging Windmills' - see below.
Sat 21 at 2pm	'World Record Turbine Hug' at noon around the new Windfarm at Watchfield.