NECS Meeting – 4.11.2011

There were 20 members present at the meeting and apologies were received from Eileen Bent, Pete, Eileen Dover, Debbie, Chris and Vicky.

Ali Gibson was in the chair in the absence of Colin Smith.

General Update/Business

The Co Op have now (eventually) agreed to open our Bank Account and details should be available on Tuesday 8th November.

Insurance is now in place with NFU and the next premium is due on 17th November (the first premium was paid by Ali personally due to the Banking problems) – hopefully the next premium can be paid from the bank account and arrangements made for future monthly debiting.

There was a suggestion that we affiliate to the West Norfolk Bee Keepers in order to get insurance cover for the bee group (as NFU are unwilling to cover this), this was thought to be a good idea and will be investigated further by Clive.

Pig Group 3

All the pigs are doing fine and looking good – this seems a much better batch of pigs than the previous one (no obvious health issues either). The pigs are now being fed with a different food designed for rare breeds, which should result in a less fatty animal at slaughter. It would be worth talking to the other groups to see if their feedstuffs could be supplied by the same supplier and take advantage of discounts etc.

Cattle Group 1

The bullocks are all doing fine, however it is getting towards time to get them indoors for the winter and barn construction at the allotment must become a priority. The group does have a Stock Person advising them on the management of the animals.

Chicken Group 2

The current batch of chickens will be going for slaughter next week.

Bee Training Group 1

The 2 hives on the Orchard are now locked down for the winter and mouse guards have been fitted (there will still be bee activity until it gets colder).

Clive did not want to leave the 2 hives on the meadow over the winter and suggested that they are moved when it is cooler and activity quieter – they will have to be moved to at least 3 miles away to avoid problems, Clive will sort this out.

Orchard and Allotment days debrief

They were 2 very good and successful days although the Orchard should be done more often in order to keep the unwanted growth down. A good collection of apples was made which were sent to the Gressenhall Apple Day. It is hoped that we will be able to have our own press and juice at next year's event when all the formalities have been gone through.

The Allotments

There is a lot to do! – There is about 1400m of fencing and gateways to erect and we hope to get the loan of a tractor and post thumper from Gressenhall to help in the task. The priorities and initial timetable are as follows:

Sunday 6th November 12:00 – Gate the field and training session in fencing, barn post holes if there is time.

Sunday 27th November, 10:30 – Barn erection – a 6x12m needs to be built to house the bullocks over the winter (6x6m of it will be covered) – This is essential and all help will be appreciated.

Sunday 4th December, 10:30 – Fencing of the first paddock and erection of electric lines to keep the pigs in – again as many people as possible please, it is a good opportunity to learn and there is a lot to do.

The rest of the allotment needs either cultivation or spraying to keep down the weeds and best approach will be reported next month.

It was suggested that the original idea of a communal compost heap for the village was probably not a good idea as we would have little control as to what was dumped and it would also raise the issue of Waste Licenses – if it is kept solely to the community it should work well.

Next Steps

Mark had had a meeting with the new School Head and reported that the School was excited at the prospect of involving children in the project. There is a need to think about appointing a child protection officer although initial work would be under teacher supervision. A suggested project was stone picking which apparently can be a very enjoyable and competitive children's sport!

AOB

The Pancetta is now available although the garlic sausage is sold out – contact Merryn to purchase. The Group have had an offer from the charcutiere to teach the group how to make salamis and the other products – the meeting thought that this was best organized toward the end of February when the next batch of pork was ready, further details when available.

Rats and Feed bins

We are lucky to have been given a donation that has been used to buy water troughs etc. to provide both water for stock and also some to be converted to make rat proof feed bins (an absolute necessity)– with the discount available on the day it enabled us to buy £660 worth of essential equipment. An appreciation of this support will be placed in the next Elmham News.

December Meeting to be combined with Xmas get together, this will be at the Railway (Tracks) on 9th December – Merryn will coordinate

19th May – 16th June is next years Dereham Festival, if we are to organize something to tie in then it must be thought about and discussed at the next meeting as the closing date for Festival event submissions is mid December.

Communication

It was agreed that the meeting minutes would be emailed to all members no later than 2 weeks after the meeting to allow anyone who was not there to find out what happened and also allow time to suggest any items for the next meeting, also that a less detailed version be placed on the web site at the same time so that potential new members can see what we are about. More prominent contact details were also requested (these are on the web site), members also need to let a member of the Steering Group know about any agenda points they'd like to raise, before the Steering Group meet each month. Anything that arises in between a Steering Group meeting and an open meeting can be dealt with in AOB

Next Meeting 9th December in Tracks 8:00pm