|
Finwood Hill Farm is set around a sixteenth century farmhouse,which was the hub of a working farm for hundreds of years. About 30 years ago the 20th century farm buildings were demolished and it became a residential property surrounded by land rented out to a neighbouring farm. When Robert and I bought the property in 2001 we had no intention of becoming farmers. With busy lives in other professions we were more than happy to retain a small part of our land for our horses and leave the rest on a grazing licence to the care of a local farmer. However, a surfeit of grass and a chance sighting of a fieldful of Dexter cattle gave us the idea to buy a couple of Dexters to help keep the grass down and to ensure our family could enjoy free-range produce.
The rest, as they say, is history! I am now “retired”and Robert has cut down his workload in other areas so we can devote all of our time to running the farm. We do all of the work between us with a little much needed help from family at times like haymaking, Gemma who does hooftrimming and dehorning and David who is a wizard at fencing. We now have a herd of 50 pedigree Dexters and a small herd of Gloucester Old Spot pigs, not mention our little flock of mainly rare-breed hens and half a dozen Khaki Campbell ducks. We run the farm on very "old fashioned" lines and, while we have not applied for organic status, we try to rear our animals in as natural way as possible, without resorting to chemicals or medication except when it is humanely necessary to do so. We try to maintain closed herds with minimum risk of infection from outside. Our cattle are not fed any intensive feed stuffs and eat only grass, supplemented in winter by hay and silage cut from our own fields. We started selling our produce to family and friends then, as word spread and demand increased, we decided to convert one of our buildings to a little shop so we could sell direct to the public. Our trade comes from word of mouth local advertising and people who see our farm sign while out walking or enjoying canal life on the Stratford on Avon Canal. |
