October update

The South Downs koi club invited me back last weekend to give them a talk on how my breeding project has been coming along. I was last there 3 and a half years ago, and talking through the changes in that period reminded me just how far we’ve come.

 

That’s the 3rd club talk I’ve given in the last month; the other two being at Crouch Valley and also the Worthing Koi Club. And, that’s it for a while which is just as well because selection activity is starting to pile up.

 

So much so, that Amanda had to pick up the second selection of Lava Rosa’s 2018 spawning last weekend while I was at South Downs. We ran Lava Rosa with a different males pairing this year and the early signs are very promising. She produced good bodied Kohaku’s with good skin on her first spawning in 2017, but I was slightly disappointed with the number that came through with good patterns. So, the change in males was made hoping they would throw out a higher percentage of patterns and from what I saw yesterday, it appears we have made some improvements in that area.

 

Also last weekend, we harvested the top pond for the 3rd time this year! That has a small cohort of kohaku’s from our new female Trudy. Plus, some non-go sanke that we’ll sell as a mix next year. You might remember I tried to fill the whole pond with Kohaku but was thwarted by 3 failed kohaku spawnings. So, we’re just grateful to have gained a decent sized harvest and the chance to sense check another Kohaku brood pairing; and it’s a record for us to be able to use the pond 3 times in one year.

 


I nearly forgot… we have some big news. We have gained planning permission for 4 new fry ponds for our fishery, and that’s the final piece of the puzzle falling into place. That’s been a year’s worth of work, and we are grateful it’s come together.

 

So, the farm expansion continues, and we are gaining some super facilities that are starting to make a difference to us already this year.

 

In a couple of weeks time is our first ‘Shooting Stars’ event… We ran a Mukashi Ogon spawning this summer, and we are making available the best yearlings from that spawning to our customers in the format of a growing competition. These non-go sanke are a guilty pleasure for us.. and we’re pleased to be able to share the experience of growing on some of the best yearlings from that spawning in this kind of format with our customers.

 

We’re laying on a bottle of Champagne as a prize for the person who has grown their ‘Shooting Star’ koi to the largest size – the first prize assessment will be at the end of the winter, at the next one end of next summer. And then also on a first past the post basis for the key milestones of 60cm, and the big one… 80cm. As I write this blog update, we have over 30 people registered for the event with most people coming to the picking event at our place on Sat 27th October.