How We Farn

It's All About Nature

Our family have been farming at Gazegill for about 500 years and as current custodians our responsibility to continue farming in a sustainable and nature led way is very important. We have always believed that nature is never wrong and farming organically produces healthier food from happier animals within a sound ecological system.

Happy, healthy animals make better food with a traditional flavour. The rare and traditional breeds that we keep are better suited to the organic system and are slowly grown, this ensures a longevity of life based around a natural approach to farming. We love them to bits, they are our extended family.

The importance of our wildflower meadows

We have traditional hay meadows that are species rich in flowers, herbs and grasses, these promote an abundance of natural habitat for our birds, and other wild animals. We are currently within the higher level environmental stewardship scheme with Natural England and we truly believe that joining this scheme is a natural progression for Gazegill with its biological heritage sites and our beautiful nature.

The Biological Heritage Survey found our meadows to be particularly rare, containing over 60 species of grasses, herb, flowers and clovers supporting countless species of wildlife. In comparison, intensive farming systems producing and feeding silage contain as little as 3 or 4 species of grass and plants and support minimal wildlife.

Since 1930, 97% of England’s traditional wildflower grasslands have disappeared, so we do think we are quite unique! We firmly believe that our low intensity farming system supports nature and our organic heritage meadows.

These meadows keep our rare breed livestock happy and healthy and the result is great tasting meat & milk, with better nutrition and a better environment for the next generation.

To coin a phrase we have always said “its what’s not in it rather than what is”, this we think is key to our commitment to food that is natural in its rearing and happy in its life. Happy, healthy animals make better food.

Our ethos

Our ethos is simple, having been handed 500 years of carefully farmed land our intention is to hand it on to our children with all of its wild flower meadows in as good an order as it came to us. Our ethos, in a phrase we will simply put more in than we take out.

Our protected biological heritage sites (wildflower meadows) are an abundance of flowers, grasses and plants that all play key roles in our immediate eco system.

Happy bugs and micro organisms give us a healthy and living soil and form the basis for a food chain which supports a wealth of small mammals and birds, rare and otherwise. By farming these meadows in a sensitive manner means we only cut them for hay once everything has gone to seed and all the birds have flown their ground nests.

Not only is this better for nature but due to the varied and numerous grass and herb types the hay is a more rounded winter feed for our shorthorn cows and rare breed sheep supplying them essential nutrients and medicinal herbs as well as being a natural diet for ruminants.

Healthy & natural food

When the glorious Lancashire weather permits, our cows are given free access to the pastures where they forage for different plant types and even self limit any potential illness, not only is this a natural and healthy way for cows to graze. By law, we are required to ensure our animals are outside for at least 200 days per year, although generally our number is much higher than this. This is a stark contrast to intensive farms, where some cows will be housed in barns all year round.

To feed our animals this way has a direct effect on the quality of the meat & milk they produce and grass fed meat is higher in omega 3 but then nature is never wrong and if we are what we eat then we are also what the animal has eaten.

No pesticides, no herbicides, no artificial fertilizers and no slurry, just good old-fashioned well-rotted bedding muck like we have done for centuries.

It is important for us to use nature to our advantage and work with her, our wild bees and pollinators help us as much as our bugs and earthworms. Healthy and living soil which yields from year to year without the need to plough, re-seed or feed with artificial fertilisers and all because we let nature lead us and show us the way. Stop and stand back, watch and mimic and by doing so we can produce healthy and natural food.

Seasonality

We farm in a natural, seasonal way and produce from our own animals, so availability can vary throughout the year. We don’t farm to supermarket specifications and we don’t believe in forcing supply we believe in doing things properly, with the welfare of the animals and the land at the centre of what we do.

A prime example of this is our milk yield. From late October until the beginning of Spring, our milk yield can drop by up to 50% compared to the peak of summer. In layman's terms, this is ultimately because cows use more of their energy on maintaining their body temperature when it is colder, and we also 'dry off' some cows during this period to give them a break from milking.

We could take more animals on board, and push for higher milk yields from our ladies, but ultimately this would undermine what we stand for and reduce the quality of what we produce. 

For this reason, stock on some items may sometimes become limited. The best way to keep up to date with stock is by putting your email into an out of stock item to be alerted when it is back in stock, or sign up to our mailing list.