November 2011 Newsletter

Hi everyone and welcome to another Farmgate Meats Newsletter

Last time we wrote was back in June when we were in Scotland – this newsletter is written from our office on the farm – not quite as exciting!

It’s been a great lambing Season (snow at the right times when we weren’t in the middle of lambing unlike last Spring!) Nice to see Spring here and all the new growth of animals and grass alike. The weather is beginning to get a lot warmer and the days are really stretching out.

Paul and Mark have been busy on the farm doing tractor work. It’s time to get the new grass paddocks sown out and the winter crop in for next year. Once the young grass is in, we then need some rain to get it growing. It’s been a little drier than normal and looks like the forecast for the season is for a drier Summer. Having said that we did have 8 inches of snow on the 3rd November – mmm!!! Now that I have said that it's been drier we have had quite a bit of rain, go figure!!

We are in the middle of shearing at the moment, busy days spent in the woolshed. We still do all the cooking for the shearers and also pen up all the sheep in the yards ourselves and press the wool into bales ready for sale.

We have just had our Chiller Truck signwritten and are very pleased with it. - see the photo below.

Thanks to everyone who has placed their orders already for Christmas – we are going to be super busy. Just let us know if you wish to place an order for delivery before Christmas as we are currently selling as fast as we can process and we would hate for you to miss out. Our email address is farmgatemeats@farmside.co.nz or website address is www.farmgatemeats.co.nz

Our final delivery for 2011 before Christmas to Dunedin & Mosgiel will be Saturday 17th December and our final delivery date to Central Otago for 2011 will be Thursday 22nd December. Our Southland deliveries will continue as usual up until the 19th December.

We have a large waiting list for our New Season Lambs that will be available just prior to Christmas – let us know if you would like your name added to our list and we will contact you when they are ready to deliver. There are limited numbers that will be ready for Christmas so be in quick.

In January we will be again at the Taieri Show held in Mosgiel at the Show Grounds. This year it is on Saturday 28th January from 10am – 4pm. We would love to see you at our site, so if you are in the area, come along to our site and say hi. Or if you have signed up to our newsletter but haven’t yet bought some of our meat, this is a great opportunity to come along and meet us and see what we have to offer.

In February we are looking to have an ‘Open Day’ on our Farm so that our customers can see where their meat is grown. We anticipate this being a great Family Day out with entertainment for the children, a tour of our farm and a BBQ lunch – not to mention great coffee! We will have a demonstration of our dogs working, there will also be our pet lambs for the kids to play with and other activities. Our Peat Swamp in the middle of our farm will be in full flower with the Scottish Heather which is just beautiful. From the hills of our farm the views are spectacular and you can see West to Te Anau, East to Gore and South to Stewart Island. More details will be coming your way in January.

Keep in mind we also sell our Mince ‘n’ Cheese Kebabs, Premium Mince, Sausages (including Gluten Free) and our Crumbed Sausages separately – these are great freezer fillers for all those BBQ’s over Summer.

This is early…. but have a lovely Christmas and a safe and relaxing time over the summer with your Family and Friends .

Kind Regards

The Farmgate Meats Team