We keep beef cattle, sheep, pigs as well as a range of poultry and wildfowl including ducks, geese, hens and turkeys.
Every resident on the farm has a job to do:
- The hens work like tractors in the fields where the cows and sheep are, helping fertilise and aerate the soil. This means there’s lots of grass for the cows to eat.
- The geese are like lawnmowers, helping us keep on top of the grass in the orchard and driveway.
- The pigs are great at turning the ground over, so they clear away the roots and weeds for us, ready for planting.
- And the cattle and sheep help keep the grass down and provide fertiliser for the soil, as well providing the meat that goes to our organic box scheme customers.
We choose breeds that will suit the environment here. So, although the best chicken for meat is the commercial white chicken, because it turns the smallest amount of feed into the largest amount of meat, they don’t suit us because they just sit next to the feeder and don’t like the light. We need chickens that will run around, eat bugs and weeds and rake and fertilise the ground. They might grow more slowly, and we might need to go hunting around the farm for any eggs they might lay, but we believe they have a better life, and produce better tasting chicken and eggs as a result.
The meat in our organic box scheme doesn’t look the same as supermarket meat. That’s because in it’s come from rare breed animals, that have been reared organically and because often it’s hung for much longer, as well as being butchered here on the farm. All of that helps develop a better quality and taste.
Because we’re an organic producer everything has to work together. So that lovely pork chop that’s in your box is there because it’s been a good year for the pigs – they’ve been well fed, been happy rooting around in the soil, kept nice and warm, and have run around a lot.