Poultry Discussion

Why poultry discussion? Well we are chicken farmers and all too often when we talk with family and friends we start with talking about chickens then end up talking about anything from food and food safety, climate change, wildlife, birds, our farm. We started this blog to communicate what we are finding out about the world around us and how we try to farm in a sustainable way so that our farm is here not only for ourselves and our neighbours but for the future too.

Saturday, 9 July 2011

Wheat is growing

Wheat is growing fast and we are lucky to have a harvest due in four weeks time when you look at the plight of people in other parts of the world.

Wednesday, 29 June 2011

June podcast

Tuesday, 28 June 2011

We are in the Farmers Weekly!

Check out the article on the farm on Farmers Weekly Interactive

Sunday, 26 June 2011

Nuffield at The Three Counties

We manned the Nuffield Scholarship Trust Stand at the Three Counties Show - great fun. Check out Nuffield Scholarships at http://www.nuffieldscholar.org/scholarships.php

Thursday, 16 June 2011

The rain brings clover and flowers

Thursday, 9 June 2011

Sweet clover

The sweet clover is growing and now in flower

Saturday, 4 June 2011

Tidying up the vines

Tidying up the vines can be hard work!

Hill Farm, Castle Frome, Herefordshire

Hill Farm is about 300 acres in size - an acre is about the area of a football pitch. This year we are growing feed wheat; winter beans, spring beans and oats. We also have 50 acres of woodland.

The wheat was planted in the autumn and will be harvested in August. We will feed the wheat to our chickens and sell some of the straw to other farmers who will probably use it for bedding for their livestock. We will bale some up for ourselves and chop the rest and incorporate (put it back) into the soil to improve soil structure. Beans were planted in the spring along with spring oats.

The woodland areas are traditional mixed woodland with conifers and areas of deciduous trees. There is a myriad of wildlife on the farm - mammals, birds, insects ... we will tell their story in this blog. They live in the woodland, fields, lakes, and streams. We hope that you will enjoy the story of our farm.