It is once again the ’season of mellow mists and fruitfulness’ and all around us here are reminders of the fantastic job nature does of providing for us. Our hedgerows are laden with blackberries and sloes, all waiting to be picked and preserved – or turned into fabulous sloe gin. Our orchard has produced a bumper crop of apples and our wild hazel hedges are covered with nuts which will no doubt be stripped bare by the squirrels and all our magnificent old oak trees are dropping acorns as we speak.  All our organic sileage is baled and waiting for winter and our cattle barns are cleaned out and banked up with straw.

Our organic pigs are out all year round on our pastures with access to wallows and plenty of natural shelter. Their pig arcs are bedded down with deep straw so that they stay comfortable in even the worst weather. We have had four litters already this year with another litter due before Christmas.

Our Organic Aberdeen Angus are still out on grass and we have had a fantastic year for grass and it is still growing. Hopefully if the weather holds the cattle will be living out for several more weeks. But we are all set up to bring them into our cattle barns if the weather should become very wet. When they are in they have deep straw beds and adlib organic sileage from our own land.

Our Organic sheep are all weaned and will stay out on the pasture all through the autumn and winter. They are in a sheltered valley with gently sloping paddocks which are well drained providing excellent grazing all year round.  Our Lleyn ram and our Charollais ram will be leaving thgeir bachelor pad in the orchard and making a welcome return to their herd of ewes.

This is the place to catch up on news from Eversfield Organic and understand what happens on the farm through the year. At the top of the screen click on each of these buttons for more: 

• HOME is the place for our latest blog entries – see below…
• OUR ORGANIC YEAR tells you about life on our farm each month
• OUR LIVESTOCK is the place to meet our animals
• EVERSFIELD ORGANIC will take you back to our online shop
• OUR PHOTOS a gallery of images from the farm

Over on the right of the screen you’ll find

• CALENDAR click through each month& date for stories to read
• ARCHIVES lists all our stories in date order
• RECENT POSTS our most recent stories
• LINKS to websites you might like to read

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We’ll update the content as often as possible, and welcome any comments or suggestions for topics which our readers are interested in. Just complete your comments at the bottom of each page. 
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Our latest litter of piglets - now several weeks old.

Now that the ground is warming up our latest family of piglets is spending more time out in the sunshine, rooting around for grubs and roots. To keep our organic grass meadows full of life and nutrition, we follow a natural organic rotation cycle each year. The large hillside meadow where the pigs have spent the winter is now just a field of bare earth, as the pigs have eaten all the grass and vegetation whilst putting natural fertiliser back into the soil from their own waste.  The field will now be ploughed and drilled for planting with organic meadow grasses later this year, and by next summer will be used for grazing some of our sheep or cattle. The pigs will be moved to another field to start the process again!

Eversfield Sheep keeping warm!

As the snow hits most of Britain yesterday, the farm in Devon seemed to escape the worst weather and our sheep were tucked up and keeping warm in the fields. The first heavy snowfall arrived in the evening with over 2 inches on the ground this morning!

If, like us you’ve been glued to your telly these past 2 weeks watching Channel 4’s Great British Food Fight, then you’ll be as delighted as we are that the subject of animal welfare in farming and food production has been in the spotlight for both pork and chicken.

Firstly, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall examined the poultry industry and called for industy wide adoption of more humane conditions for chickens through his Chicken Out campaign to raise minimum living conditions for intensiveley produced poultry.

Then Jamie Oliver looked at how we raise pigs in the UK and highlighted the apalling conditions in some EU pork farms.

Two main themes emerged from both programmes:

1. How can UK farmers produce meat humanely with welfare of the animal in mind and yet still make a profit if  supermarkets demand  low prices?

2. Just how much are people really willing to pay for quality meat which has been reared with the animal’s welfare in mind?

Compassion in World Farming and the RSPCA Freedom Foods both have active campaigns to improve the living conditions for animals raised for food – you can find out more by visiting their websites.

At Eversfield Organic, we put animal welfare at the heart of everything we do.  In an organic system, as well as not using pesticides – the health and well being of the animal also has a direct impact on the quality of the meat produced.  So, if you’re one of the many people who are now starting to question where your meat comes from and how it’s produced, you can buy organic meat from Eversfield safe in the knowledge that:

• All our animals are ‘free range’ living outdoors with the freedom to display natural behaviour.  For cattle this means herding together to graze across large areas of meadow.  For Pigs it means foraging or ‘rooting’ about in the meadows for grubs and vegetation.  For sheep, they enjoy foraging for grasses and herbs to find the naturally occuring vitamins and minerals they need for their diet.  For Chickens, it means having a good scratching place to dig up the dirt, room to move about and flap their wings to establish a natural ‘pecking’ order.  Our Cows are brought inside and have straw bedding through the winter, whilst are sheep ar brought into lambing pens during March.  The Pigs are outside all year round and have large pig acs to keep them dry and warm.
• We don’t castrate our pigs nor do we dock their tails.  They live happy lives in natural groups with their mothers and siblings until they’re ready for slaughter.
• We breed both Rare Breeds (Aberdeen Angus Natives) and mainstream livestock, the aninals breed together naturally – not using artificial insemination.

We know our meat is the best you can buy, and we know our cows, sheep and pigs are amongst the most contented and healthy animals in British farming! 

If you have any questions – youc an always call our office or email us:

01837 871400

info@eversfieldorganic.co.uk

Our Organic Turkeys are always a popular Christmas treat and we thought you might like to read about where they come from and what makes them so special! 

Eversfield Organic Norfolk Black Turkeys

Our organic turkeys are the traditonal Norfolk Black Turkeys which are bred on small organic turkey farm based just a few short miles from Eversfield Organic. 

The Norfolk Black  Turkey is a slow growing breed – unlike some breeds used in commercial turkey farming, which are chosen because they grow very fast and are sometimes even  ’forced’ under intensive conditions to produce unnaturally large birds for the Christmas market.

Our local turkey farm is one of the very few organic turkey producers in the UK to be breeding and hatching their own Christmas turkeys, which take 9 months to mature in natural surroundings without any forcing.

The farm keeps 6 ’stags’ (male turkeys) and about 30 breeding hens.  During the mating cycle,  the stags are allowed to run freely with their own small group of hens in the comfort of large open grassy pens.   This stops the stags from becoming too territorial and bossy and gives them just enough work to do.

This year , the eggs were laid in February and placed in incubators against the cold winter with the first chicks hatching on 30th April.

Oranic farming is all about knowing where your food comes from and ensuring that livestock are raised without chemicals or pesticides on a natural diet. 

The organic turkeys we sell at Christmas live a pretty good life. They’re allowed to enjoy natural behaviour – they fly, they perch and enjoy pecking about the orchard and surrounding fields. This natural behaviour results in the best quality turkey meat with excellent texture and flavour. The owners further develop this by feeding a supplementary diet of home grown organic cereals, peas and wheat.  They also discovered the birds like to eat acorns !

With the utmost attention to welfare, the birds don’t experience any stress when it comes to slaughter, they’re despatched humanely and plucked at the farm before being sent to Eversfield Organic and delivered to our customers.

Each Turkey is ready prepared to roast in the oven, so all you need do is add your favourite stuffing and all the trimmings for a delicious Christmas Day feast!

Click here to return to the Eversfield Organic home page

With chilly winds, rain and sleet across Dartmoor and the South West, our cattle are now cosily installed in their large winter barns where they can enjoy deep straw beds and plenty of organic food. Our Aberdeen Angus cattle are sturdy with thick coats so why do we bring them indoors you may ask?
Well, the main reason is that we need to protect our organic pasture during the wet and muddy winter months.  The hooves of cattle are flat and can turn a green meadow into a muddy bog within a few weeks during wet weather.  The second reason is that the organic grass and forage which is the mainstay of the cattle’s diet does not grow as strongly during winter ‘hibernation’ when there is less sunshine and colder temperatures. We simply wouldn’t have enough natural grass to feed all the cows! 

So whilst they’re in the barns, we feed them on hay and silage collected from our fields during the summer months (read posts on silage & hay July 17th & July 23rd)) and they also have access to fresh drinking water and plenty of room to move about and sleep.

Our new bull ‘Elevation’ (read September 11th) has settled in well with his lady friends and the entire herd will now stay indoors until early spring when the pastures start to dry out and the fresh grass begins to grow. This photos shows some of our cows in one of our farmyard barns.

For the past few weeks the breeding ewes in the Eversfield flock have been joined by our ‘tups’ who get in amongst the sheep to ‘cover’ them during the autumn, in order to produce spring lambs.  The tups finish their work and leave the flock in November, and our ewes begin to lamb indoors during March.

The sheep had their fleeces shorn in the summer, but have now grown another warm layer of wool which keeps them warm and dry for the winter months.  The grasses of the Eversfield meadows during winter provide some forage which is supplemented with hay and silage.  Our sheep are perfectly adapted to stay outside all winter, but will be brought into the barns for lambing at the end of February.

Dunloise Elevation

Eversfield Organic is delighted to announce the arrival of a new member of staff! 
He’s 5ft tall, weighs half a ton, and is a hit with the ladies!  “Dunloise Elevation” is our new Aberdeen Angus breeding bull and he’s a true scot, having been bred on a farm north of Edinburgh by Geordie Soutar and his son Duncan.

Elevation  travelled from Scotland to Chester on August 10th, where he was met by our Farm Manager, Malcolm Light and driven down to his new home with the Eversfield herd.

As with all our cattle at Eversfield Organic, Elevation is registered with The Aberdeen Angus Cattle Society and also the Herd Book which lists all pedigree Aberdeen Angus cattle in the the UK.

Elevation joins 3 other Aberdeen Angus breeding bulls at Eversfield, 3 of which are also from the Dunloise bloodline.  Our pedigree cattle herd at Eversfield comprises a mixture of Aberdeen Angus ‘types’.

• Firstly, we have a group of ‘Canadian’ type Aberdeen Angus, these are our largest type and the result of a renewed Angus breeding programme which began in Britain in the 1970’s.  Our Canadian type heiffers will be joined by our breeding bull ‘Maximus’ – our largest bull to produce middle weight beef cattle.
• Secondly we have our ’Traditional’ Aberdeen Angus herd which is a middle weight animal and at Eversfield we have 2 separate breeding groups. One is slightly smaller ‘Traditionals’ and the other group are medium sized. Our new Bull Elevation will be living with our medium sized Traditional heiffers this autumn to produce his first spring calves next year and it’s hoped that he’ll add some weight and size to the progeny. Our third bull here at Eversfield is called ‘Pancho’ who’ll be working with the smaller Traditional heiffers.
• Finally is our most special herd of pure ‘Native’ Aberdeen Angus. Eversfield has the only breeding herd in the UK of this small type which is from the ‘Presteign’ bloodline. Shorter legged, the Natives prodice smaller beef cattle but the quality of the meat is concentrated, with superb marbling and flavour. When commercial beef farming started to grow, the trend moved towards larger animals, but we know that small is beautiful – when you buy Eversfield Organic Beef you’re enjoying this unique breed and helping to preserve the future of this important bloodline. We have our own Native breeding bull ‘Dunloise Jypsey Demon’. 

To read about the history of the Aberdeen Angus visit the Cattle Society for information.

This September we had a successful result when our breeding sows and large white boars produced a bumper litter of autumn piglets. The piglets enjoyed the late summer summer sunshine and ran about the field, squeaking and chasing one another whilst the sows foraged in the grass for worms and other grubs, or rested in the meadow.  All our pigs have now farrowed, producing almost 300 piglets between them this year with their spring and autumn litters. Pigs are such fun to watch, especially in their natural environment rooting amongst the undergrowth. It was a lovely site to see, although taking photos was a challenge as the piglets seemed rather too interested in the camera!

New piglets!

Down in West Devon we enjoyed a hot and sunny weekend, but the wind and rain has returned on Monday and it seemed as though the rest of the country was suffering a heat wave whilst we all splash around in wellies and rain coats!  Due to good luck and wise timing, our farm manager Malcolm managed to get the hay crop cut, dried and bailed in the sun before the rain set in on Sunday evening.

The cattle, sheep and pigs don’t seem to mind the weather too much and we’re hoping that the recent warm burst combined with the rain will encourage more grass growth, which has been behind expectation this summer.

Our latest litter of piglets has started to arrive with the first Meidam sow delivering 16 healthy babies over the weekend, we sadly lost 4 piglets from this large litter.  The heavy rain has meant that the litter is preferring to stay inside the pig arcs but we expect them to explore their world soon. This was the first litter produced by crossing our Large White boar with Meidam sows and we’re hoping for lots of long backed pigs in a few months to provide plenty of pork loin for our award winning organic bacon!  We’re expecting around 150 piglets before the autumn, and in our second full year of organic pig farming the breeding cycle is now organised into Spring and Autumn farrows producing around 300 piglets each year.

The spring lambs have been weaned and are now grazing in small juvenile flocks, while our ewes are moved onto rich grassland to stimulate the breeding cycle before our male ‘tups’ run with them again later this year.

Why buy New Zealand lamb when the very best ´New Season´ organic British lamb is available from Devon!

New Zealand lamb is famous for its taste and quality and has long been a favourite of British consumers. However, buying lamb which has to be frozen and flown half way around the world has to take second place to British organic lamb – naturally reared and freshly prepared to order.

Few could argue against buying British farm produce which is also better for the environment and better for the economy than foreign imports. New Season lamb is often sold in March for the Easter traditional roast, however this is only possible if farmers ´force´ ewes into an early breeding cycle so that lambs are born in winter and weaned in the spring.

At Eversfield we work with nature and breed from our ewes at the end of year, lambs are born in March producing new season lamb from the summer onwards.

Eversfield twin lambs with their Ewe

Cut hay drying in the sun

Finally the sun is shining over Eversfield, and our hay meadows are ready to be cut and baled.  The tractors went out a few days ago and the cut grass has been laying in the hot sun and drying.  It’s turned once to make sure it’s completely dried through before the clever machinery gathers up the chopped hay and packs it tightly into a round bale which is secured with a special kind of netting.  Our livestock will enjoy eating this sweet organic hay through the winter, the sheep will stay outside but be given hay, whilst our cattle will be fed on hay and silage once they come into the barns at the end of the year. 

Some of our Hay Bales

Hay contains all the goodness of summer grass, but because it’s dried it can be stored, it also provides a good amount of fibre which is essential for digestion.

At the moment all our animals are enjoying being outside in the sunny weather and lush green organic meadows.

Long may it continue!

If you’re out and about in the British countryside at this time of year you may see lots of large black plastic bales dotted around the fields - it´s silage season.

Here in Devon during late June, the fields around the Eversfield Organic farm were humming with the sound of tractors as the first silage crop of the year was harvested.

What´s silage?

‘Silage’ is the agricultural name given to cut grass which is packed into large round bales, wrapped in plastic, allowed to ferment during several months of storage before being used as feed for our cattle in the winter months. It’s really just ‘pickled grass’ which doesn’t sound very tasty – but cows love it!

Why do we need silage?

During the winter our organic meadows are dormant and not very rich in nutrients.  So, we bring our cattle into the barns where they’re given organic food including silage. They also enjoy the protection from the wet and windy winter weather. At the same time, it gives the meadows a chance to rest before the spring growing season.

We harvest the grass when it is richest – in summer, so the cattle can still benefit from all that goodness even in winter.

Our organic silage is special.

Organic silage bales coming into the farmyard

The meadows are now left to grow again for several weeks before another silage harvest in late summer.

These photos show some of our meadows being cut and the silage bales stored in the farmyard.

Our flock of 450 Suffolk cross ewes and their growing lambs were brought down from the Eversfield meadows this morning to begin the annual spring shearing, filling the farmyard with a chorus of bleating throughout the day!

How do you shear a sheep?
A team of 4 shearers and 2 handlers under the management of our farm manager in our woolshed started the first ewes at 7.30am at the start of a very long day which finishes around 7pm.

The ewes and lambs are first moved in small groups into the catching pens where the lambs are separated and given a basic health check before being allowed out into the yard – we bring them back in late summer to shear the soft lamb’s wool.

Each ewe is then moved down into a small holding area, and taken out one at a time by the shearers to receive their haircut!

The wool is removed efficiently in under 3 minutes using machine operated shears. The shearers expertly restrain each ewe during the short procedure which is completely harmless, starting in the belly area first then around the legs and entire body to completely remove the fleece in one piece.

Each ewe is also given a health check with particular attention to their feet before being reunited with her lambs and a chance to show off her new ´look´ to the rest of the flock.

The fleece itself is thrown flat onto a sheet to be checked, trimmed and graded before being rolled and packed into large bags for transportation. Our Eversfield Organic wool is sent to the Wool Marketing Board where it’s processed and sold as a raw material.

Good things come to those who wait. . .

Whilst most farms are frantically cutting their first silage crop up and down the length and breadth of Britain, here at Eversfield we work with nature to provide the very best silage crop, in order to give our livestock the very best winter feed. How do we do this? It’s simple. . .  we leave it to nature, and then we wait. Non organic farms will spray and fertilise fields to stimulate grass growth and minimise weeds and wildflowers.  At Eversfield, our silage is 100% organically grown without the use of chemicals, this allows nature’s wildflowers and grasses to grow and proliferate unhindered, giving a rich and nutritionally balanced silage crop. Many farms will cut silage in May and June, before the seed heads develop on the grasses. They do this to minimise the fibre content of the grass thus aiding digestion.  However, at Eversfield, we know that our beef cows benefit from an increased fibre content – WHY?  With a higher percentage of fibre in the grass, the cow’s digestive system takes longer to digest the grass so it sits in the stomach for longer. Whilst it’s sitting there, it gives the cattle’s digestive system more time to extract nutrients from the silage. This means our cows get the maximum nutrition from the silage.

Our Farm Manager Malcolm Light keeps an eye on the silage fields at this time of year to carefully assess the growth of the grasses, wildflowers, clover and other nutritional plants which grow in our organic pastures. Only when the time is right will Malcolm call in the contractors to begin cutting.  Each meadow enjoys different growing conditions – drainage and moisture levels, differing soil variations, sunlight, exposure to winds and so by assessing each meadow individually, Malcolm can plan to cut the silage when he feels the meadow is ready. Our silage fields are therefore cut at different times to suit the conditions. During the silage cutting, the silage is rolled into bales and stored where it matures through the summer in time for winter feeding.

Good for our cows and good for wildlife. . .

There’s another happy benefit of our approach to making silage.  Whilst most farms cut silage in May or June before the grasses and flowers have flowered and seeded, our Eversfield Organic meadows are allowed to proliferate with wild flowers providing a spring habitat for insects, birds, bees and butterflies creating a vital food source to support the bio diversity of wildlife around the farm.

So whilst others may be rushing to cut their silage crops, we wait until July – better for our cows and better for nature!

The spring hedgerows around Eversfield are blooming and blossoming with colour and life. Foxgloves, honeysuckle wild strawberries are all in flower attracting the birds and bees and all manner of crawling life providing food for young birds and mammals.

Wild Flowers in our Organic meadows