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.

Sunday, 29 July 2012

Waterfowl

Saturday, 21 July 2012

Floral margins on the cliffs in Cornwall

Saturday, 14 July 2012

Flowers clinging to edge

Saturday, 7 July 2012

Preparing for history talk

Suckley History Society came for a talk on the history connected to the farm

Sunday, 1 July 2012

Beautiful tree

This tree caught my eye on my travels

Wednesday, 27 June 2012

New Education Centre at Loddington

New Education Centre at Loddington - great design - straw walls, wool insulation in the roof, PV for electricity, rainwater harvesting for flushing toilets, living car park with drainage to reduce run-off - underfloor heating ...

Field corner mix at Loddington

Yesterday I was at the Allerton Project in Loddington talking about diffuse water pollution - enjoyed all the other speakers too - great day on Integrated Farm Management

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.