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 | Milking Time Here at the farm we have a herd of 200 milking Friesian cows. They are milked twice a day by Andy and Sam (Andy's Son). At the moment all our milk is collected by OMScO ( organic milk suppliers co-op) and is used for Organic yoghurt and other Organic dairy products and we now bottle and pasturise on the Farm. (see below) |
Bottling Our Own Organic Milk We believe our milk is second to none. We pasturise and bottle our milk within 4 four hours of the cows being milked. The milk does not leave the farm and is simply gravity fed directly into the pasturiser from the farms bulk tank. No secondary tanks or transportation is needed. Our Milk is available from our Farm Shop and our London Markets. Please call the farm for details. 01749 813710 |  |
 | What We Do On The Farm We constantly check the well being of our beef herd. As you can see the animals know their farmer and are not afraid. Our beef animals are regularly moved to new pastures to ensure the best grazing for them.
This Simmental animal is about 12 months old and has been born and raised on the farm as are all our beef animals. All our animals are fed on our own organic land which is rich in grass, clover and meadow plants such as buttercups.
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Grass Cutting As the summer moves on we spend a lot of time cutting and collecting our grass. We do this to ensure that during the winter months, when the weather is bad and the cows are settled in their large straw sheds they still have access to our organic grass and all the rich nutrients it gives them. This is one of the busiest times of year on the farm and a time when the whole family pitches in and helps. With a hundred or so acre's to cut it is a big job. We start cutting at about 10.00am after the dew as gone. We usually work in shifts. This goes on until the light fades at about 10.00pm. As you can see this is a big part of summer life on a Farm |  |
 | A Race Against Time It's a race against the weather to make sure that all the grass is cut, rowed up and stored in the pit before the rain arrives. After we fixed the problems we can now carry on. Once the pottinger is full it is reversed into the pit and tipped. Once tipped we use the Manitou to push all the grass against the back wall. The pit will be filled to the top so the Manitou just keeps pushing up the grass until the pit is full. The grass is kept here through the rest of the summer. As the winter draws in, bit by bit we use the stored grass to feed our animals. This ensures we know what our animals are eating and that it is good for them. |
Things Go Wrong... Once all the grass is cut and has been put into rows it needs to be collected and transported to the pit. For this we use a special trailer called a pottinger. It is pulled with a tractor and collects all the grass and feeds it into the collection area. A lot of Farmers use a forager but this requires a tractor and trailer in addition to the forager. Using the pottinger we can do it all ourselves.
As with all jobs things can and usually do go wrong. On this occasion one of the chains that power the collection motor snapped. Andy, Lee and Donald are seen here trying to fix the problem. Many hands make light work is the theory here.
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 | Larry The Lamb We have added lambs to our farm this year. As we do not have the space or the man power to keep a large number of Ewe's on the farm we buy in locally bread Organic lambs and rear them ourselves from a young age. They have been a welcome addition to the farm and we have become quite attached to them. In particular Larry. Larry was ill as a lamb and we took him into isolation and helped him to get better. He has a special place in our hearts and we are sure he will be here a long time. |
Escapees In addition to the beef animals and the grass cutting we also have our Rare Breed Berkshire pigs to look after. Our pigs are reared completely out doors in family groups and have large areas in which to roam and forage. Our pigs, as all pigs are very intelligent and need lots of space to explore. Sometimes they feel like taking a day trip and stage a breakout. They disappear somewhere on the 300 acre farm and it can be quite amusing to see Andy and Lee trying to bring them back again.
Puts a whole new meaning to the phrase bringing home the Bacon!!
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