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, 24 December 2011

Christmas time

This Christmas time is very different to last christmas - no snow and despite the rain the ground is still very dry with no water yet getting down to the land drains.

Sunday, 18 December 2011

Quiet time on the farm

Quiet time on the farm, but it is raining which is great news.

Sunday, 11 December 2011

Conservation Grade

Keep an eye out for Conservation Grade products.

Friday, 2 December 2011

Water management video

I have been working with LEAF this week discussing with farmers how the impact of farming on water supplies can be reduced. Check out this video made by Jake Freestone on water management. It brings discussions of scrapes, and swales alive. I will watch the progess with interest.

Wednesday, 23 November 2011

Silver lapwing award

We were thrilled to be presented with the Silver Lapwing Award by Herefordshire FWAG last week. The award was given for active arable bird conservation on the farm.

Friday, 18 November 2011

Ginger the cat - a new visitor

Another stray cat has turned up on the farm aka known as Ginger. He definitely doesn't trust people

Saturday, 12 November 2011

Herefordshire Beacon

Visiting the ancient hill fort high on the Malvern Hills makes you realise that people have been farming in this area for thousands of years.

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.