Blog

We have five thousand trees to plant this year. Two thousand are being planted in our woods and in smaller copses in corners of fields. These are mainly sessile oaks, hazels, rowans and birches. Here’s Leo and Esme who helped me plant 170 sessile oaks and 50 silver birch, this is within a planted hedgerow…… Continue reading PLANTING TREES

Finally, after months of trialling and preparing, the entire 20 acres of Tor Noon is now open for the ponies to graze. The ‘invisible’ fence is a blue cable that we have lain around the perimeter of Tor Noon. It acts in a similar way to electric fencing, but with the bonus of it not…… Continue reading INVISIBLE FENCING FOR TOR NOON

Torak has come to join our pack. We hope he grows to love it here working with us, as he did with the lovely family and farm he came from.

Both Sammy and my nephew Noah offer their help as we go to check the cows on Hale Downs The cows collecting beneath the veteran hawthorn

Now the scrapes are established in Grove of Trees we have been able to allow the cows in to this whole area. It’s extraordinary how they immediately engage with this diverse space and became very quiet and content. These cows let you know when they are unimpressed – it’s really nice to feel their satisfaction. …… Continue reading DOWN IN GROVE OF TREES, OUR WET MEADOW AND ROSE MEGAN WOOD

Piers is the main veg grower, and is particularly good at successional growing and winter veg in the poly tunnel – it is wonderful to be able to pick a variety of vegetables and reduce our reliance on ‘shop-bought’. I’ve been clearing out the tomatoes and basil from the tunnel to make room for some…… Continue reading IN THE VEG PATCH

You might have been thinking – what are those things around the cows necks? – Good question… we  are trialling a system from Norway that uses GPS to map a ‘virtual’ boundary which communicates to these collars on our cows. When they come within 2-3m of this boundary an audio warning is issued that gets…… Continue reading OUR ‘NO FENCE’ SYSTEM FOR GRAZING THE MOORS

Why Dexters? They are not a commercial breed, in fact they are the smallest and most ancient native cow. They are direct descendants of the black cows of early Celts and came to Britain from Ireland in 1882 – perfect. We wanted a breed that had been overlooked and as a result, hadn’t been bred…… Continue reading A BIT MORE ABOUT DEXTERS

Grove of trees is a tree lined meadow that had been drained by the previous farmer but was still too wet for his cows and too ‘scruffy’ to leave alone, so it was killed off with glyphosphate for several years. We are in the process of restoring it to a species rich wet meadow, with…… Continue reading WE CONTINUE TO CREATE WILDLIFE HABITAT WITH SUPPORT FROM PENWITH LANDSCAPE PARTNERSHIP – 2019

Higher Keigwin Farm And some more of Rose Wood and Rose Valley wetland It makes me feel really happy to see the diversity of habitat