Latest News

Wye Community Farm Meat Boxes WCF produce now available please see our order forms: Lamb and Beef

26 January

Wye Community Farm has received a £9750 funding boost from SITA Trust, to carry out habitat enhancement work on the Wye National Nature Reserve

SITA Trust provides funding through the Landfill Communities Fund. Funding is available for community and environmental groups to carry out a range of improvement projects.

The funding will enable Wye Community Farm to clear scrub and bramble in the Devils Kneading Trough, the focal point of the Wye National Nature Reserve. The Devils Kneading Trough is home to a small colony of The Duke of Burgundy butterfly, an endangered species targeted in the UK Government’s Biodiversity Action Plan.

Undergrazing in recent years has seen scrub and bramble encroach on the site, so smothering the grassland and more specifically the cowslip upon which the Duke of Burgundy feeds. Restoration of the grassland, and careful grazing of the site in future years by Wye Community Farm’s livestock, should ensure the future survival of the Duke of Burgundy on the reserve.

Scrub clearance is being carried out by local contractors, supported by Wye Community Farm volunteers and clients from Kent Probation.

Graham Potts, Chairman of Wye Community Farm, says “The Devils Kneading Trough is a nationally important site for some of Britain’s rarest species, and we are delighted to be able to carry out this habitat improvement work as a part of the Wye Community Farm’s commitment to promoting environmentally sustainable food production.”

Jools Granville of SITA Trust said ‘We are delighted to work once again with Wye Community Farm. Over the years this applicant has built an impressive track record in delivering real biodiversity benefits with relatively small grants. We are very much looking forward to seeing how this project develops’

 

30 December
Seasons greetings from all at Wye Community Farm. Beef and lamb boxes will be available in the New Year, for details see our order forms: Lamb and Beef

29 October
Pictured are the rams at their favourite time of year, including Marcus our newly purchased Portland Ram. Also pictured are this years show cattle enjoying being back at home after a summer on the road.

 

1 September
Pictured is Bluebell having a snooze at the Edenbridge and Oxted Show last weekend; it’s obviously a tiring life being a show cow.

9 August
We are pleased to report that WCF has received a generous grant from The Jackson Foundation towards our community garden project. Pictured are members of our growing group weeding the raspberries; to get involved in this project contact us

19 July
Back in the spring WCF lent three yearling heifers from the Wye Crown herd to different young farmers groups, for their members to halter train and compete at the Kent County Show. Pictured are Blossom, Bluebell and Buttercup with their handlers in the ring this weekend. They entered several classes, with the best result being a fourth (out of over 15 entries) for Blossom and Buttercup in the beef pairs.
WCF will next be showing at the Edenbridge and Oxted Show at the end of August, we are always pleased to hear from anyone who would like to get involved in preparing and showing our cattle.     

 

21 June
Due to family commitments our bookkeeper has had to stand down, we would be pleased to hear from anyone who could take on this important role. An honorarium can be paid.

 

13 June
Pictured is Sian with Wye Crown Bluebell, and behind her Wye Crown Blossom, at the South of England show. Their next appearance will be at the Kent County Show 15 – 17 July.

27 May
Pictured is Dibble, our stock bull for the last two years, who is off to a new home in Dorset tomorrow. Also pictured some of Dibble’s progeny; twin heifers born last year Bluebell and Blossom who are currently being halter trained for showing this summer, and some of this years calves. 

12 May
Our cattle and sheep are enjoying the recent warm weather, though we do now need some rain to get the grass growing. With over 40 lambs born this spring we will have plenty of lamb boxes available from July onwards, contact us to place an order or for further details.

 

4 April
On Saturday we held a very successful lambing day, where a large number of people came along to see the new born lambs and learn practical shepherding skills. The photo shows our tutor Graham giving instruction in how to apply a rubber ring to a lambs tail.

8 March
We are pleased to announce that Wye Community Farm has received funding from the Big Lottery Fund to hold a series of education and training events on the Wye National Nature Reserve.

Through the Big Lottery Fund’s Community Wildlife Programme, our project ‘A year with the Devil’ will see us running events in and around the Devils Kneading Trough over the next 12 months.

For details of events, all of which will be free to attend, please keep an eye on our diary page

 

15 March
Our newly appointed grower, Penny Davis, is now leading horticultural sessions at the farm on Wednesday’s.

A Wye graduate, Penny has a wealth of horticultural expertise to pass on as a part of WCF’s commitment to provide training in rural skills. Produce to be grown this season includes raspberries, shallots and beetroot for use by the Wooden Spoon in their award winning jams and preserves. To get involved contact us.

We would also be pleased to hear from anyone who has gardening tools they could donate or loan to the growing group.

 

25 February
Thanks to funding from The Sylvia Waddilove Foundation UK and Kent County Council, we are now running a project to produce both livestock feed and vehicle fuel from locally grown crops.

Local farmer Andrew Martin is pressing rape seed grown by Chapel Farm, with WCF then using the resultant oil to produce biofuel to replace conventional diesel in our vehicles. The cake left behind after extracting the oil is a valuable by-product of the process, to be used to replace imported livestock feed.

21 February
The ewes are now having supplementary feed in the Devils Kneading Trough, and will this week come indoors in preparation for lambing to start on 18 March.

 

24 January
Our next charcoal making training day will be held on 2 April, see Diary for details.

4 January 2011
Our first Christmas doing turkeys went well, pictured is our plucking team in action. We are thinking of doing more turkeys in the future, we know it’s a bit early to be thinking about this but if you would be interested in having one please let us know now so we have an idea how many young birds we know to get in the summer.

2011

7 December 2010S

The last week has been hard work for the humans - hauling feed, thawing water pipes etc – but as the photos show the livestock have taken it all in their stride.

 

26 November

Nearly all of our turkeys are now spoken for; contact us quickly if you would like one.

The ewes are all now hopefully in lamb; the photo shows them with our new Poll Dorset ram on the Devils Kneading Trough

 

26 October

Our training day on Saturday was a great success, with participants learning all about charcoal making and its role in sustainable woodland management.

20 September
On 23 October WCF will be holding a charcoal making training day, see diary for details 

 

10 September

Wye Community Farm run an after school club every Monday during term time, where children get the chance to care for the animals and learn about food, farming and the countryside. The sessions are led by experienced tutors and all relevant insurance is in place. Attendance is free of charge, with anyone aged 6-16 welcome. If interested in attending, please contact us

WCF are looking to recruit some soft fruit expertise, if you can offer practical or technical input please get in touch.

Pictured are Kalamar and her twins Wye Crown Bluebell and Wye Crown Blossom, keeping a watchful eye on the rabbits in the Devils Kneading Trough. 

31 August

Wye Community Farm had a successful trip to the Edenbridge and Oxted Show over the August bank holiday weekend. Pictured is Sian with Wye Crown Benny the Ball being judged second in their class. How to handle and show livestock is one of the skills to be learned at the WCF farm club, open to all aged 6-16 and held every Monday evening during term time.

In order to develop a new initiative WCF need to recruit more horticultural expertise, so if you have technical or practical input you could make please get in touch.

 

29 July

An important role for the WCF herd of British White cattle is to help maintain the chalk grassland on the Wye NNR. For several years the banks of the Devils Kneading Trough had been under-grazed, with the result that scrub had taken over. Last year Natural England cleared the scrub, and the cattle are now grazing on any regrowth to give the grassland a chance to regenerate.

21 July

Former students of Wye College will recognise the WCF nest boxes as being the pigeon holes in the student union!

1 June

We are pleased to report that a grant has been received from Kent Community Foundation, through their Grassroots Grants Fund, to support our after school club. The club meets every Monday during term time and new members are always welcome, contact us for further details.

14 June

The WCF flock has been shorn; a welcome relief for the ewes now that summer has finally arrived. With some quality Portland and Dorset fleeces to hand, we are now starting a new group where our resident expert Della will give lessons in all aspects of spinning. If you are interested in attending please contact us for details.

 

18 May

Are you handy with a camera? If so get yourself up to the Devils kneading Trough and capture some images of the WCF herd of British White Cattle. Large cash prizes are on offer in a National competition looking for the best photos of native breeds carrying out conservation grazing. See http://www.grazingadvicepartnership.org.uk/news/gap_photo_competition
_free_to_enter_competition_focusing_on_native_breeds.html

For details of an open day in June, see our diary page

 

27 April

Our lambs and calves are now out on the Devils Kneading Trough, enjoying the spring sunshine.

 

26 March

The WCF herd of British White cattle are currently calving, and they recently gave us an eventful night. First Kalamar produced twins, which we found shivering in the straw as the whole event had obviously freaked this first-time mum out so much that she didn’t know she was meant to lick them dry. After plenty of rubbing down with straw and feeding with colostrum from a bottle they began to look a bit livelier, though it was to be several hours before they had the strength to stand. Whilst all this was going on Pentaphone gave birth at midnight, quietly getting on with it and having her calf up and suckling within half an hour.

As the photos show all are now doing well, though the twins do look dirty as they keep going up to the milk bar through the back door and getting a pat on the back from Kalamar. Thanks are due to Mike and Charlie, two experienced stockmen living in Wye who came out to help on the night.

Wye Community Farm will be taking some of their new born lambs to the Wye Farmers Market this Saturday. Prizes will be on offer for 'guess the weight' and 'guess the breed' competitions. 

15 March

On Saturday we held a very successful lambing day for the members of the Farm’s after school club. Graham, one of the club’s regular tutors, was delighted when one of the ewes proceeded to go into labour just as the event commenced. He was then able to lead a highly instructive session covering all aspects of ewe and lamb husbandry, with his attentive pupils clearly taking much from the day.

The costs of running this increasingly popular club are covered by the subscriptions from WCF members; for details of how to join see the membership page

 

 

3 March

Lambing has got off to a successful start, with our Dorset ewes lambing in March followed by the Portland’s in April. Pictured is Josh, a keen member of our after school club, making sure some new-born twins get their colostrum.

4 February

Our four legged friends at Sylvan Environmental have just done another three days timber extraction, as a part of our SITA trust funded grassland restoration project. Yser and Jeton are Ardennes horses, a breed ideally suited to the skilful and physically demanding task of pulling Ash trees up the steep slopes of the Wye Nature Reserve.

8 January

White out! The stock don’t mind it at all, but for the humans it makes getting round the icy lanes to do the feeding a sometimes hairy experience.

For News from 2007 - 2009, please see our News Archive Page here.