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Supply and fit service for bat and bird boxes.

We can offer a supply and fit service for developers who need to provide a number of bat and bird boxes on a site.  We can propose a suitable mix for the species and uses likely to be present, put them up, and then provide you with a short letter report with plan and images for submission to the local planning authority to help discharge relevant planning conditions.  For sites more vulnerable to disturbance/damage boxes can be erected by the E3 tree climbing team at height.

When fitting boxes we carry black, brown and green spray paint to help better match the boxes to the tree.

Horses

We have a small breeding herd of horses selected to be fun but with minimum environmental impact.   Our stallion includes fell, Friesian and thoroughbred genetics, so he is tough, easy going, used to a northern climate, has great hooves, but a dash of flash and some fancy paces.  He is great for crossing with taller rangy thoroughbreds to produce sports horses  as his foals tend to take strongly after the mare but have masses of hybrid vigour, decent hooves and bit more bone.  They can be kept bare foot, winter out unrugged, need nothing more that grass and haylage, have very low parasite egg counts and a good dose of common sense.

Looks-wise we tend  to produce handsome black/dark bay  horses with decent manes and tails, little feathering and a sane and sensible approach to life and work.  Current youngsters for sale include a 4yr TB x fell filly at 14.2, a 1yr bay gelding (tb x fell/Friesian)  to make >16h, and a 2yr black filly arab x freisian/fell/TB to make 15h

Sheep

In 2018 we had our first crop of lambs, with a lambing percentage of 250%, designed to be low input but to produce top quality shearling meat at 17 months.

The current cross is Wiltshire Horn with Castlemilk Moorit, whilst the ram line will be Wiltshire horn x Soay.   With these genetics the sheep will be hardy, have a short fleece that is shed, avoiding the need to shear, and be easy lambing and good mothers.   We have a small number of ewe lambs and wethers for sale.

Haylage

Our haylage is managed specifically for horses, being low in sugar and high in fibre.  We only spot treat weeds such as docks and thistles and apply farm yard manure one year in five, so it contains a wide range of species and is close to organic standard.  One field is cut earlier to provide feed with a higher protein content, but most are cut in July or later.  Although horses are well known to thrive on a fibre rich diet a lot of produces still market haylage produced just  from perennial ryegrass and timothy with high sugar and protein  varieties designed for fast growth of young cattle and sheep.  In  horses  terms timothy and rye = burger and fries.

We produce both large and small round bales, with the small bales weighing around 34kg so they suit single horses, can be rolled around, and fit in a wheel barrow.

Detailed forage analysis has shown what minerals our grasses are a complete feed for horses but a little  low in, copper, zinc and selenium.  A matched balancer is available equating to about 20p per day.

Wildlife Permaculture

In the future farming will have to sustainably deliver food, wildlife and wider environmental benefits so we are researching how this can be achieved through a number of initiatives:

Producing crops of hay and haylage from diverse grasslands our farmland bird numbers have been growing year on year, at a time when nationally the trend is inexorably downwards.  Bat diversity and abundance has increased with more of the scarcer woodland bat species recorded on the land as new hedges and green lanes have become established.

We are developing what we call ‘hydro-habitat banks’.  They are species-rich hedges on a vertical sided engineered bank with a scalloped ditch alongside.  The soil surface area is doubled, increasing translocation, and even more water is sucked up as the trees and shrubs establish.  The ditches drain slowly, capturing sediment and nutrients and slowing run-off, whilst the earth works expose low-fertility substrates encouraging species-rich grassland communities on the bank-side and  woodland herbs in the shade.  By managing the meadows and pastures alongside unintensively we are aiming to minimise soil compaction, increase soil carbon, and increase water holding capacity.  Currently we are trialling growing fruit trees, particularly damsons, as part of the hedgerows to get additional crops from the land for us, whilst the diverse hedge plants provide herb rich forage for the sheep and horses.

Drainage is also benefiting from the construction of new ponds and reedbeds, buffering flows, improving water quality and providing water for stock.  Aquatic plant colonisation was very slow, so we have developed techniques to seed small quantities of key species as plant fragments – they spread wonderfully within a couple of years.

As a result of these approaches we have otter in the streams, badger, barn owl, increasing numbers of amphibians and  most of the local bat species and lots of nesting birds.