The Herd
Our herd of 16 rare, native breed Golden Guernsey goats are the fore runners of our animal teams, travelling around our land in electric fenced compartments. This allows them to target particular areas of the land which need the most work whilst allowing us to protect areas from overgrazing, and our newly planted trees and hedgerows. They selectively browse the vegetation, naturally choosing the nutrients the need, whilst leaving behind a mosaic pasture which wildlife loves. This extensive grazing style helps to improve soil health by increasing plant root systems whilst encouraging a more diverse array of plants and flowering species to grow. Being native breed goats makes our girls ideal for this job, and also hardy enough to enjoy living outside all year round.
Currently the herd is made up of five breeding nannies, ten younger goatlings and their friend Dylan. Our mature nannies are bred each year, with their kids due in April. After they have kidded, we milk our nannies with their kids at foot, a process called milk sharing, making sure they have plenty left to feed their kids. We milk from April to October, after which the nannies are dried off to give them a rest over winter. We use the milk to hand produce a range of goats dairy products including cheese, yoghurt and kefir which is available to buy direct from us, with local delivery available.
The Pigs
We keep a team of four British Saddleback pigs on our land at a time. Being a native breed, they are hardy and work well out on the pasture as well as in the woodland, moving around our land in electric fenced compartments. Their foraging and rootling behaviours help us to target areas of rougher vegetation and dominant plant species. They help to break up these areas, leaving space for more diverse and delicate plant species to grow, whilst suppressing more dominant species such as thistles, docs and nettles by eating their nutrient rich roots. Our pigs also spend time in our woodland areas where they help to open up the dense vegetation on the ground, leaving space for seed to fall and young trees to grow. This helps improve the health of the woodland by promoting a diverse age structure.
Our pigs arrive with us at around 8 weeks old, known as weaners, and whilst they're with us we make sure they are happy, healthy and have what they need to thrive. Our pigs are fed on a diet free from soya and GM ingredients, with a healthy helping of brewers grain from a local brewery. They supplement this with plenty of tasty treats that they forage from our pastures and woodland. We visit them morning and evening to deliver them their food and give them a good scratch behind the ears, and inbetween this time our pigs just spend time being pigs!
The Chickens
Our chicken team are key land workers, helping us to restore the land for nature. They play their part by rotating our pasture, following our herd of Golden Guernsey goats and British Saddleback pigs, spreading the nutrients and feeding the soil. They scratch out moss and tussocky vegetation to make space for other plants to germinate and grow, increasing biodiversity.
Our hens are free to roam, they love scratching in the pasture to naturally forage for insects and plants. We feed them a natural diet, free from soya and GM ingredients, and use sustainably sourced bedding for their travelling chicken coop, AKA Eggmobile. We sell our eggs via our Egg Club, offering weekly, local deliveries.
Our flock is made up of rescue hens that, at only 18 months old, would have been going to slaughter as it is deemed they are no longer productive. Commercial chickens are often kept in poor conditions, with constant light to stimulate high egg production, and little opportunity to express their natural behaviours. We think that these chickens deserve a second chance at life and we've seen them flourish here. Many of our hens came to us with few feathers, clipped beaks and missing toes but they are getting healthier by the day and they continue to lay the most delicious eggs for us!