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Christmas may almost be here with the thought of a restful time and a few days off for many. However, Farming is a 365 days a year profession and we have to feed all our animals as well as care for their needs.   £10 buys a bag of feed or bedding. You can use our 'Crowdfunder Cragend Farm' via google or apply for a sponsorship form.   Avian flu has been headlined rece ...

Competition winners:   The names of our new heifers are:   Lady Margaret of Armstrong Christmas Cracker   We thank everyone who entered and pledged. ...

DONATIONS AND SPONSORSHIPS ARE HELPING US RAISE AND PROTECT THESE FABULOUS BRITISH BREEDS FROM EXTINCTION. If you are interested in sponsoring one of our animals as a gift for Christmas, a Birthday or Anniversary please contact us and we will be happy to send photos and updates about life at Cragend Farm. All our animals have official pedigree names and we issue a certificat ...

Farming Friends Forever This summer has been eventful with 2 new Whitebred Shorthorn calves born, who are growing up fast and are a great addition to our rare breed herd. The cows have had a fabulous summer of eating lots of grass and basking in the sunshine.  The cows are  hopefully pregnant and we will be taking care of them throughout the coming  Winter.  Our 3 Bagot Bil ...

We are thrilled that we our maternity unit at Cragend Farm has been busy with our Rare Breed Bagot goats having some kids. We will continue to put videos up on youtube and our blog about the things going on at the farm. ...

Merry Christmas! 2019 has been an amazing year at Cragend Farm. Our holiday accommodation business is up and running and we now have a flock of Cheviot sheep and a small herd of Rare Breed Whitebred Shorthorn cattle to look after as well as our chickens, peacocks and dogs. Our new arrival, Dax, a Border Collie dog, is now 1 year old, and training to be our trusty sheep do ...

This is the critical moment when we get our cows ready for the artificial insemination programme that will hopefully give us 3 more rare breed whitebred shorthorn cattle. Our Breeding programme is in its 2nd year and we are hoping that our beautiful girls will be pregnant and calf in May 2020. ...

Tree Dedication: The Storer family have lived in the Coquet Valley for over 300 years, and to celebrate this Rob and Helen Storer decided to dedicate a tree to the family past and present as part of our Scots Pine Stand at Cragend Farm. The trees are positioned on a high point on Cragend Farm. The tree furthest east has been dedicated to William Storer and all his forebears. ...

Cress Sign: Made by our children  Welcome to Cragend Farm: Accommodation for families and couples, visitors with dogs and everyone interested in heritage and farming. ...

Every summer we have to shear the sheep and this year Shaun was there with his shears again to clip the sheep.  This year we have some video of the action, and although not winning any prizes for speed or fleece, Shaun is very careful and gentle with the sheep in order not to stress them. There is also a cameo appearance by Dax our new sheep dog. ...

We thoroughly enjoyed our visit to your fantastic farm on the Historic Houses tour on Tuesday. We both agree that it was the most interesting HHA visit we have ever done - and we have done many over the years! We had no idea of the extent of the Armstrong connection or what you have there, having visited Cragside on so many occasions in the past 50 years or so. And indeed looked down on the farm from the walks at Cragend quite recently. We particularly enjoyed ascending and descending the ladders to look at the hydraulic equipment and get an idea of how it all functioned, the beautiful and unusual buildings which had housed the cattle, and were intrigued by the contents of your "underground " loo! Peacocks and chicks, hens and a beautiful pet lamb added to the feel of the farm.

Shaun & Lou Renwick are keen to harness the farm's natural resources, using wood to heat their water, to cook with on a wood burning range, and to heat the houses on the Farm. Even if your house is not equipped to totally run on wood there are things you can do to make sure you are using the best quality wood for your fires.

Why use Seasoned Wood?

Seasoned wood is a definition for 'wood drying'. About 5% of the energy of the log is wasted through evaporation and heating the water vapour of damp logs.

Moisture effects the burning process with unburnt hydrocarbons going up the chimney, which can in time create 'sooting' in the chimney, with the possibility of a chimney fire, all of which requires specialist sweeping.

Drying the wood before burning reduces moisture content in the wood before it is used for burning,

Air drying is the most traditional method, and it takes time. usually over and above 2 years! The fire will use less energy to burn the log if the water content is below 20%. Therefore is can give OUT more energy in the form of heat!

Cragend Farm endeavours to provide their customers with the best seasoned wood possible.

if you would like further information on the process of burning wood please contact us and we will be happy to help.

Why seasoned wood?

Thank you so much Lou and Shaun for a great holiday break on your farm at Cragend last week. East Cottage was a super place to stay. Very comfortable accommodation with everything we needed for self-catering and situated next to the beautiful Cragside National Trust gardens. It was super for our dog with fields to walk across as well as a secure fenced place for her to run off lead! Such interesting history too about the farm and how you have restored the buildings, the Victorian silo and so much else of the past farming life at Cragend. We look forward to returning! J&M Nottingham.

Award Winning Accommodation