ceffylau gwaith Carnog working horses

02/09/2026

Every bracken season is hard but this last one has been tough! Each day a strict routine, up early to tend animals, managing water for them and for a month, feeding hay as well. Off to work as early as possible to roll the bracken as much as we can before it gets really hot. Then home for more chores and making sure I feed and water myself properly before collapsing and repeating. On the different sites we have had issues to deal with, from site managers changing where we roll last minute, which means diving into unseen bracken which I really do not like, to arriving to find the bracken is dead or in heat shock so finding other bits to roll or rolling twice. But it’s demoralising as we know it just won’t have the impact we want. Some days we just cancelled. If I was less honest we would just roll dead bracken, but I can’t. Only a few sites we have managed to hit the bracken at the right time to have the impact we want. A lot of blood, sweat and tears for what may be minimal results next year. But getting the mass of bracken down on some sites, allowing access for people, cattle and future work is also beneficial. Getting the process started for the bracken to rot down and allow other plants to get through again is important too. We were filmed by the BBC for Escape to the Country! which in hindsight was not a great idea as I was in a state of hot delirium and so god only knows how it will look! The site I chose, the bracken I was going to roll had been cut (not expected) just prior to us coming so I had to plunge poor Bluebell into a deep and tall unknown bit of bracken on camera! The horses have continued to drag me through with their brilliance and willingness. There have been extra bowls of soaked feed and extra treats this summer as well as regular showers (well buckets chucked) to cool them as much as possible. Fresh blackberries as treats for most of July which is very weird! Very grateful to have a big airy barn at home for all the animals to hide in. I made improvements to the roller design so hopefully it was more comfortable and some good things about the heatwave is I have a hardly seen any of the huge bomber flies, no wasps nests and no wet feet!

10/07/2026

Just an average day in bracken rolling season!!

30/06/2026

This collar, hames and pad is for sale, details on my website too. Any questions please ask. I will consider sensible offers but don't just message saying 'what's your best price?' as I will ignore you! Thanks
https://carnog.co.uk/2026/05/11/nearly-new-22-synthetic-collar-hames-and-pad/

28/06/2026

More on bracken timing. I saw this bracken a few days ago and thought it was a useful gauge of when bracken is ready to be rolled. So here the fronds are still pale /white and not unfurled. When I crushed the bracken (to clear the electric fence) it did give a pleasing crunch but it didn’t break right at the base, which I think, anecdotally mind, is important if the bracken is to stay down and not regrow or bounce back. Ideally we would be waiting til these fronds had gone brown and were just starting to unfurl to do the roll. We should still get a pleasing crunch noise when the bracken goes down and for it to be bruised at the base and then multiple other places up the stem, depending on how tall it is. With this super heat I did wonder if it may be that if we rolled this bracken the extreme heat would mean it would not have a chance to bounce back, but for this bit of bracken anyway I think it’s too early, as only a couple of days later and you can see it is still very much alive. Bracken geek! But it is important, we put a lot of blood, sweat and tears (literally!) into rolling so we need to make sure it works!

24/06/2026

Hay (lage) making 2026 has been done and it was all relatively stress free thanks to amazing weather and a great bunch of local contractors. It's so great to have this done before our heavy workload starts again and to know we have all our feed for the winter, even if we end up with a new mouth to feed soon....hopefully more news on this soon....Another step towards self sufficiency which has been my long term goal in life and the cows and horses bring me so much of what I need to live that feeding them is now sorted! Very happy 😁 😁 oh yeah and I know my posts are probably a bit boring as I don't add random music like everyone does these days but it does my head in personally do there we go!!

21/06/2026

After a wonderful Hay Festival and celebration of the Solstice, we managed to maximise the longest day of the year and cut the grass. As the wheel of our world keeps turning, we now practice patience and calm (ha ha!)Now the clock is ticking. Hope to make haylage or hay depending on how the weather plays and whether I can hold my nerve! Fingers crossed!

21/06/2026

Timing is everything! 

One of the most important factors in determining whether you will reduce the amount of bracken in any site is the timing of your work. Bracken bruising is different to other methods in terms of timing. The idea is to hit the bracken when the plant is at the peak of its growth. This is when you will have the most impact on it and when you can deplete it the most so it can’t find the energy to regrow that season. If you manage to find this sweet spot you should be able to control it with just one roll a year. If you go too early the plant can bounce back putting on a second round of growth which then will take a long time to become tough enough to roll again. This means the summer season is still plagued by the bracken growth and the impact it has on other plants that might return if the bracken was squished. So how do we find this sweet spot? When we start on a site we use our best guess based on how established the bracken is, any previous management, the location especially altitude and level of rainfall, as well as the type of habitat. But each year we also need to consider the weather over the winter, what sort of spring it has been and again if there has been any management input like grazing. If we have worked on a site before obviously we have more information to go in for the future. As we knock it back the peak time gets later each year, generally…If we had no information we would say the best time to go for would be mid July. This avoids the majority of bird nesting season too. But as everyone wants us then it really is a juggling act to fit everything in. As we have various different sites under our control we can spread our season over about 8 weeks and everyone gets as close to the best time as possible for them. Now we just have to hope that we don’t have a heat wave or rain for two months solid and hope we can sort of enjoy it again.

15/06/2026

We will be at this event again. Really lovely event, looking forward to it!

The Real Hay Festival is happening in our hay meadows on 20th June - all welcome!

12/06/2026

Recommendations for weather apps or forecasts please? Weather looks maybe good for making haylage this weekend but how to decide!!? The crop looks lovely and will feed everyone for the winter, so it's a big decision! I know I am lucky to have these kind of problems! Any advice gratefully received!

10/06/2026

So this feels a bit scary but I am putting it out to the universe in the hope that our next team mate is out there waiting for us. Please feel free to share and let me know of anything that might be suitable. Loving home and adventures await!