Our Livestock
Matt and Rich look after our mixed herd of cows and our chickens. We believe that diversity goes hand in hand with resilience – and hope our herd and flocks will fare well in the ever-changing climate. The cows are moved daily, emulating their natural rhythms as well as improving the fertility of the land and sequestering more carbon. In April 2024, Matt started an organic chicken egg enterprise, adapting similar principles to benefit the soil while giving the chickens diverse opportunities to forage, while 2025 has seen the addition of a flock of meat birds.
Cows & Pasture
Our livestock journey started back in March 2022 with five Hereford cows from Stroud Community Agriculture. Now our happy herd fluctuates between 36 and 48. Our stock is mainly Herefords, with some Beef Shorthorn-Parthenais crosses and traditional Sussex. Enjoying almost 70 acres of pasture, our cattle have a varied foraged diet and especially like grazing along the alleys between tree crops. The herd stays outside all year and is never grain-fed or routinely fed antibiotics.
Regenerative Grazing
We are certified by Pasture for Life and follow their principles. We mob-graze our herd, moving them sometimes several times a day. This method of grazing aims to increase the carbon content of the soil and to improve the fertility of the land, as well as the life both above and below ground. We keep our cattle out over winter and are slowly working towards a calving season starting in March, in line with the animals’ natural rhythms. For more information about our grazing strategy see here and for the benefits of pasture-fed beef see here.
Our Pasture for Life Beef
Our Pasture for Life certified, regeneratively grazed beef is now available to buy. We believe that this product is a real superfood that will deeply nourish your bodies. Order your beef box here. We also have our own biltong and tallow.
Our Poultry Practices
In April 2024 we introduced poultry to the farm with our first layer flock of chickens. We now have both laying hens and meat birds producing delicious eggs and protein rich meat but the birds are more than just a healthy source of food; These poultry enterprises are also beneficial additions to our land management practices; chicken manure is a rich fertiliser for the land and their pecking and scratching works wonders for breaking down the cattle manure. Our birds are raised organically and live out on pasture, rotating around the farm leaving luscious, deep-green pastures in their wake. We mob graze the chickens in a similar way to how our cattle move across the farm. They move frequently – at least once a week – which is great for them but we also consider it from a grass management perspective: the grass gets eaten intensively for a short period and then has a very long rest period allowing it to grow lots of above ground leaves and stalks as well as significantly more below-ground growth that it wouldn’t have a chance to do if the chickens stayed in the same place.
Layers
We have a mixed flock of about 340 laying birds. Two hay trailers have been converted to accommodate these girls; they have free range and fresh forage as they are moved on to new pasture on a regular basis. The layers are fed an organic, soya-free feed on top of the grubs and grass that they forage in their range. Pasture reared eggs are richer in beneficial Omega 3 as well as other vitamins and minerals.
Broilers
We are now producing pasture-reared meat chickens. Organically approved chickens are a slower growing breed that require twice the time to grow than conventionally grown breeds. Once out of the brooder (a smaller enclosed area with heat lamps that they can huddle under to keep warm while they are still small), at around 3 weeks of age, our birds spend the rest of their lives on pasture. They are fed with an organic chicken feed on top of the grubs and grass from the fresh ground that they are moved on to each day. Once the birds outgrow their pens, they have access to a free range where they continue to forage naturally. Their ‘one bad day’ comes at about 12 weeks of age, which is double the life of conventionally reared broilers.
If you would like to know more about how we rear our birds or to pre-order a table bird, please get in touch.
