Other Enterprises

Our farm is a sum of its parts and apart from the blackcurrants, apples and vineyards, we are also traditional, conventional farmers where we have a range of other enterprises that complement the fruit business.  We not only grow all the fruit as mentioned, but we also have broiler chickens – that’s for meat – we produce around 5 million chickens per year, we have around 250 acres of arable or other crops on rotation sometimes including wheat, oats, barley, maize, oil seed rape, or as currently crops for the birds and bees across good farming land (read that as you will…).  We rent out some grassland for grazing sheep and lamb and in the region of 150 acres of woodland which we ‘crop’ in rotation.   Then there is our tourism offering which includes 6 self-catering holiday homes (recent finalists at the Visit Herefordshire tourism awards) where we can sleep nearly 70 people. We are also keen to educate which we do through our farm tours – either on e-bikes, or on foot.  For other parts of the farm go to whole farm, environment, blackcurrants, apples, vineyards, other enterprises and White Heron Drinks.

Arable

We have an area of arable which rotates through environmental crops or arable (including wheat, feed beans, oil seed rape, barley and oats). These crops are grown in co-operation with other local farmers and the produce is usually sold into the local grain market. We sometimes also grow maize which is used as an energy crop for a local anaerobic digestor.

Arable crops in Herefordshire mostly end up in feed rations for other animals including the poultry. At the Whittern we have a good sandy loam soil so it suits growing anything! We do have a very high rainfall on the Herefordshire Welsh borders with up to 45" per annum, so it can be difficult to grow milling crops.

Woodlands and Pasture

We have 150 acres of woodlands which are sustainably managed under forestry grant schemes. Some of this is down the old railway line, some is in small groves and some are in a larger,managed plantations. Many of these woods and fields, we have made footpaths around - we have around 15 miles of mown footpaths.

The pasture is rented out for extensively grazed sheep. These usually arrive at the beginning of April, as lambs, on a annual profit of pasture agreement.

Tourism

At White Heron Estate we have 6 holiday lets, sleeping 2 – 22 where we offer a luxury countryside, self-catering accommodation with lots of extras – swimming pool, table tennis, hottubs, sauna and even a squash court at one of our properties. Our e-bike and walking tours that illustrate our exemplar farming are also very popular, as are our vineyard feasts! We have recently been a finalist at the Visit Herefordshire tourism awards - next year Visit England!

Poultry Farming

We are also suppliers of chickens into retail and we do this under the assured chicken production/red tractor banner. These chickens are inside our large sheds where all the heat is supplied by biomass burning their own manure and all the resultant ash is exported to other parts of the country. They are ventilated automatically as well as fed and watered.

The feed comes as different rations for different ages of the chicken's life. The water is fresh and comes from farm boreholes - it is treated occasionally with vitamins and a vaccine doses to stop the worse chicken diseases which are usually respiratory. The ventilation is in the roof in this photo where the air is drawn through with large fans to keep the sheds with constant fresh air. They are heated to a cosy 32 degrees at the beginning of their life which reduces to around 24 degrees by the end. This is all through our own heating system where we burn their manure to heat them - all through heat exchangers and hot water. We have misting systems to keep the birds cool should the weather be very hot in the summer.

Our flock mortality is only around 2% and we are proud of the way we look after our birds. Our managers are all excellent stockmen and the health and happiness (of them and their birds) is very important to the farm and to the consumer beyond. Although they are kept inside in these very large sheds they have daylight (see the windows), perches, bales to jump on and the environment is as good as can be.