Please feel free to ask us a question related to Carruan Farm by using the form below. Please check back soon to see an answer. Question: Your Name:   Question: how much do you charge? Entry to Carruan is free. There is no charge for using the play area or seeing the animals in the shed. We do charge for tractor & trailer trips and other farm tours. Of course we hope you will enjoy a meal in the farmhouse kitchen or buy some of our own meat in the farm shop while you are there - but its not compulsory! Clare Question: Do you have baby lambs. Yes we do. You can come and feed them at 3.30 pm except on Mondays and Tuesdays when we are closed. We will be open on Mondays and Teusdays through the Easter holidays Clare Question: How long do you feed bottle fed lambs for? And, how many months old are the "fat lambs" when they go to the place of no return?! Normally on the farm we bottle feed the lambs for 6 weeks. It is very important that for the first 24 hours after they are born they are fed colostrum. This is the mother's first milk and passes immunity from the mother to the lamb. If the mother doesn't have enough colostrum (say because she has triplets and the first 2 lambs have sucked it all) we put the lamb to suck on another ewe that has just lambed and has more milk - perhaps one that only had one lamb. The other ewe dpesn't usually take kindly to this and we have to hold her. Any bottle fed lambs are fed 3 times a day for the first few days and then twice a day. They have about 0.5 litre each feed. Once they are taking that amount we put solid feed in a bucket in the pen along with fresh water. By the time they are 5 weeks old they are helping themselves to quite a lot of solid food and we cut the milk back to once a day for a week before weaning them. The lambs at Carruan often get milk for longer than this just because our visitors like bottle-feeding them! The first lambs are 3 months old when they go to the butcher. The oldest would be about 9 months old. Clare Question: IS it the sort of place to stay all day, or just visit for half a day?? Carruan is a great place to visit for a couple of hours. You can enjoy the food in the farmhouse kitchen, children can play outside on the slide, ride-on tractors and climbing frame; there are lambs and cows and calves to see in the sheds. There is a tractor & trailer tour in the afternoon followed by bottle feeding lambs. We have an Easter Egg Hunt on Good Friday at 10.30; Farm Olympics on Easter Saturday at 10.30 and sheepdog demonstrations on Easter Sunday at 10.30 and 2.00 Clare Question: what do you do wen a baby animal is born? Most of our lambs and calves are born in the sheds and are only put out in the fields with their mothers when we are happy that they are getting enough milk and that the weather is OK for them - usually when they are a couple of days old. When they are born we seperate them and their mothers from the rest of the animals so that they can settle down together. We then watch them to make sure that they are sucking milk from their mothers and there are no problems. We try not to disturb them during this time and only help out if the calve or lamb is having trouble finding the teat to suck. Clare Question: When do you start lambing? We lamb our first flock from 1st November until approximately 10th December and our second flock from 1st February until approximately 10th March Clare Question: Oscar & Arthur came to visit you almost every day during our holiday in July. They would like to know how Angus & Annie are doing. p.s Arthur still talks about all the animals in the barn by name,and the blue tractor just before he falls asleep. Photo sent to you today as promised. All the animals in the barn are fine. We have four new pigs that our nephew Philip bought from a neighbour yesterday. They are saddlebacks - black with a white band across their shoulders. We haven't named them yet. We'll put some pictures on the website soon Clare Question: What is your winter opening time? We are closed on Monday and Tuesdays 10.00 am - 4.oo pm Wednesday, Thursday & Friday 9.00 - 4.00 PM Saturday & Sunday It is advisable to book for Sunday lunches Lots of lambs to bottle feed over the Christmas holidays CHRISTMAS OPENING HOURS Closed Christmas Day & Boxing Day. Open every other day including New Year's Day for soup and hot beef rolls Clare Question: What breed of cattle do the Sunday roasts come from? Most of our cows are South Devon - Aberdeen Angus cross (bred from South Devon cows put to an Aberdeen Angus bull) and we use a Limousin bull We also have a small amount of Highland beef Clare Question: Oscar and Arthur came to visit you alot in the summer, and were very taken with Angus and Annie. They would like to know how they are. Angus and Annie are both fine - they seem to be growing very fast so you will notice a difference in them when you visit again. All our older cows are due to calve in March. 500 of our ewes lambed before Christmas and produced a total of 923 lambs. Some of them were triplets. Three lambs is rather a lot for one ewe to feed out in the field, so we take one lamb away from them and feed them by hand. So we have several bottle fed lambs at Carruan at the moment for visitors to feed. Hope to see you again soon Clare Question: Do you take on college students for work experience? The only times that we take on students for work experience is during the lambing periods which are 1st Nov - 4th Dec and 1st Feb - 4 March. Unfortunately these times are wrong for most students Clare Question: how many cows do you have? We have 26 South Devon x Aberdeen Angus cows. 23 of these calved in March and early April. The other 3 should calve soon. We also have 3 new heifers that I have just bought from another farmer. These will go to the bull this summer and have their first calves next Spring. Then we have Morag and her daughter Janet who are Highland cows - the ones with the big horns Clare Question: do you have any dogs apart from the sheep dogs? Yes - a fat labrador called Ben Clare Question: do you have a boxer dog called Perdy? Purdy belongs to our manager Lin, so she doesn't live on the farm, but does come over most days Clare Question: Are you having a BBQ night over the Whit week? If so, when is it and do we need to book? We intend to have a BBQ on the Bank Holiday Monday but haven't finalised it yet. Please check the website next week for details and prices. There is no need to book Clare Question: What do you do with the wool? The sheep are shorn in May. Each fleece is rolled up separately and put into large wool sacks that hold about 30 fleeces. These are then taken to the British Wool Marketing Board depot at Liskeard where each fleece is graded according to its colour and length & strength of staple. Fleeces of the same grade our pressed into tight bulk bales. These are sold at regular auctions held at the British Wool Marketing Board's headquarters at Bradford. From here they go to a scouring plant where they are washed in a series of baths, rinsed, squeezed and dried. 30% of the weight of the fleece is lost in this process. The grease that is removed is purified to make lanolin which is used in face and hand creams, soaps and ointments. The scoured wool is then passed through a carding machine to remove the tangles. The wool is then ready for spinning, combing, weaving and dying depending on what it is going to be used for. Last year we received an average of 52p/Kg for our wool and a total of approximately £1000. However we paid the shearers nearly £900 and it takes 3 days of work for Andrew and Philip on the farm, so we don't make any money out of it. It is just a job that has to be done Clare Question: Will you be having Bar-b-cue evenings again in the summer? What time do they start and what will you be serving? Yes we plan to have BBQs and entertainment most nights - pig racing / farm olympics / birds of prey handling sessions / sheep dog demonstrations. Dates will be on our events page shortly. BBQs start at 5.30 pm. Our Carruan BBQ has lamb chop, burger & sausage with jacket potato and salads. We have other options with rump steak, and very popular vegetable and halloumi kebabs. Clare Question: Do you know if you are holding a BBQ on Mon 28May...if so please give details Sorry no we won't be holding a BBQ on Bank Holiday Monday - we do have a bale painting competition & excellent home-cooked food in the farmhouse kitchen Clare Question: We'll be staying at St Minver for a fortnight from June 23rd, what r ur summer opening times and is there a programme of events for that period? Will there be any animals to feed? We will be open from 9.00 am - 6.00 pm when you are down (8.00 am - 8.30 pm during the summer holidays). There are pigs, goats, chickens and lambs to see around the centre & we bottle feed the lambs at 3.30 pm each day. There are tractor & trailer tours in the afternoon to see the rest of the farm including the cows and calves. On Wednesday afternoons at 3.00 pm there is a sheepdog demonstration Clare Question: what times are you open? 10.00 am - 6.00 pm weekdays & 9.00 - 6.00 pm at weekends In the summer holidays we open from 8.00 am - 8.30 pm every day Clare Question: Do you sell Hoggs Puddings by mail order? Not yet! We are hoping to begin mail order in the next couple of months. If you would like us to let you know when we start please send your email address to enquiries@carruan.co.uk Clare Question: Hi when i visited last year i noticed that you have accomadation to rent on the sea front. How much do you charge per week?? My parents rent out a property at Polzeath with a garden that opens directly onto the beach. Unfortunately it is full now until the end of October. Having such a good location it gets booked by the same families from year to year, but if you are interested for next year email me just after Christmas with the dates you would like and I will pass it on. it sleeps up to 8 people and a week in August this year was £750 Clare Question: are thre any pictures of the barn? No sorry there aren't - I'll get the camera out! Clare Question: how long has Carruan been around? Carruan has been my family farm since 1966 but we only opened the farm visitor centre in May 2006 Clare Question: where can i find a list of events for the summer Apologies that this isn't already on the website. It should be there in the first week in July Clare Question: Whens the next pig race on??? We are still working on a summer programme, but subject to confirmation we will be having sheep racing on Tuesday evenings from 15th July with a BBQ or hog roast - sorry no pig racing this year, but the sheep are just as much fun! Clare Question: Hi, Do u have a campsite? No, but there is a campsite right beside us called Southwinds contact www.rockinfo.co.uk email tristramcampsite.fsnet.co.uk tel. 01208 863 267 I can also recommend the campsite at Trewiston Farm. See www.kestrelpromotions.co.uk/trewiston email jvmably@btinternet.com tel. 01208 863 205 Clare Question: DO you have any goats? We have 2 very friendly goats. Carter is the one with horns and Alfie is the little one Clare Question: how much is laser tag Its £8 for 4 games & great fun. Best to get there early Clare Question: Hello, ur big cornish day out sounds great! But can i bring my dog please? Yes, but there isn't really much shade. There is a wate bowl for dogs beside the restaurant though Clare Question: We are coming to stay in Polzeath from Sat 8th Sept. What events will you be having that week? We have a 3 yr old and a 1yr old We will have tractor & trailer rides around the farm in the afternoons - take approx 30 mins and cost £2 adults £1 children There is a play area with ride-on tractors + pigs & piglets, chickens, sheep, goats and ducks to see. Clare Question: Do you sell any of your fleece for spinning in your farm shop ? No we don't, but are thinking of doing so if there is enough interest Clare Question: How much is your sunday lunch for adults and how much for children? Main courses are £6.50 for adults & £4 for children. Starters are £2.50 and sweets £3.50 - all cooked fresh at Carruan Clare Question: DO SHEEP DOGS LIKE COMPANY We have 4 sheepdogs and they all get on well together and sometimes work together, so I suppose the answer is yes. They all love people Clare Question: Do lambs have wool when they are born? Yes they do, but its quite thin - not like the big woolly coats their mums have. As long as they have plenty of milk from their mothers and its not too cold, they can live outside as soon as they are born, but they do need good shelter from the field hedges and from cuddling up to their mothers. Clare Question: what is the fomula called to feed lambs The best food for young lambs is their mother's milk. If we need to supplement it we give them colostrum for the first 24 hours either from another ewe or from cows or we buy it in powdered form. Colostrum is the very rich first milk that the ewe produces and it contains antibodies that help protect the lamb from infection and diseases. After the first 24 hours we feed our orphan lambs on special powdered milk which we buy Clare