We decided to make full use of the fertility building ley by grazing it with cattle, sheep and then pigs.

We chose a breed native to East Anglia called Red Poll to further enhance the fertility of the soil by grazing and dunging therefore encouraging beetle activity and other soil micro-organisms that are essential to creating a healthy soil.

Red Poll as a breed have been in existence since the 1800s but their ancestry goes back even further in time, perhaps to the Danish invasion of East Anglia in the 800s. Red Poll have adapted to local climatic conditions over this time and can easily cope with a low input system which is based solely on forage crops like Sainfoin and our permanent river pastures, which means we DO NOT have to feed our cows and sheep cereals at all, unlike most conventional farming systems.

We calve in April – May so making full use of the natural growing season and we leave the cattle to wean their calves themselves, usually at 10 – 11 months old. This gives the calves a really good start in life avoiding any unnecessary stress and means they are finished for slaughter at 24 – 30 months old.

Slaughtering takes place 11 miles from the farm and our stock are killed first which means they spend minimum time away from their usual environment. Sides are delivered back to our farm where they are hung for 21 – 28 days creating a soft full-flavoured beef.

For our sheep flock we chose another East Anglian breed called Norfolk Horn which are a tall, finely boned, almost deer like breed, which are used to grazing the heathlands of Norfolk and Suffolk. We lamb in April to make full use of the natural growing season. First lambs are finished in October/November, on a forage only diet.

Lambs are hung for 14 days and are available usually right through the winter to March.

Because we could not find a local breed of pigs we decided to try Tamworths as they were the closest pig related to European wild boar and therefore had been around a long time and like all our stock would have built up a natural immunity to native English diseases and pests.

Our pigs graze the soinfoin leys and plough up the ley disturbing pests like leather jackets in the process, therefore playing a part in the cycle of the farm by naturally weeding and dunging the now bare soil .

Cover crops such as Phacelig are sown onto bare land before cultivations begin in preparation for planting potatoes in late February. We grow as many varieties of potatoes as possible to further increase biodiversity and help non-blight resistant varieties by growing more blight resistant varieties next to them .

Because the pigs have cleaned up most weeds by rooting up the ground, mechanical weeding is kept to a minimum resulting in a healthy low carbon input crop which actually tastes of something, unlike most over–irrigated conventionally grown potatoes. Harvesting takes place July–October with main crop potatoes naturally stored in our farm buildings.