Yesterday we hosted a visit by students on the BSc Sustainable Land Management from Hadlow College. Led by our Manager for Biodiversity and Alternative Energy, Jason Ball, they learned about the farm’s organic production and the diversified business including the Sheepdrove Eco Conference Centre, herb production for Neal’s Yard Remedies, the chicken abattoir and butchery unit, organic butchers shops and our home delivery meat hampers.

They were very interested in our projects on renewable energy, sustainable water management, waste management, and wildlife. Two of the most tangible models for sustainable practice include the Eco Conference Centre and the Reedbed System which treats all our waste water, returning it to the chalk cleaner than it was when we abstracted it from the chalk below.

The staff of Organix met at Sheepdrove Eco Conference Centre today. They enjoyed a Reedbed Ramble, a Farm Tour and talked about sustainable building design over lunch! As always, lunch was organic, seasonal and fresh from the farm. Chicken pie; saffron and kale tart; leaf salad; roast carrot and beetroot; cheese and tomato focaccia on the side; and for dessert, sticky toffee pudding.

Organix makes organic foods for babies and toddlers, established by Lizzie Vann in 1992. They have a strong culture of healthy, organic food (no junk) and the company makes a lot of effort to communicate with the customer. Organix have a blog which lets you know what they’re up to, and their packaging ’shouts’ organic. So they understood why we tell our customers about the Sheepdrove story. 

The Reedbed Ramble, Farm Tour and the eco-building conversations were something new for the Organix team. But all 35 could relate to how an award-winning business with outstanding projects emerged from strong ethical principles.

Sheepdrove is a great place to base a meeting if you aim to stimulate new ideas and fresh thinking in your business. If you fancy a day here for your staff team, please book the venue well in advance to avoid disappointment. For a group of 35 - 60 the Beech Room is perfect.

Sheepdrove Organic Farm has written before about the huge problem of antibiotics in farming. We avoid them, as an organic farm. Our customers appreciate this, as do many food experts.

If you were worried about MRSA consider this - industrial food production is making things worse. Researchers are finding mulit-resistant bacteria in all sorts of places, and it is linked with the over-use of antibiotics in farm animal care.

New government figures show approximately 64% of all farm antibiotic use is in pigs, 32% in poultry, 3% in cattle, 1% in fish and less than 0.5% in sheep. [10] This demonstrates the huge reliance of the intensive pig and poultry industries on antibiotics. Grazing animals like cattle and sheep, on the other hand, are generally farmed less intensively, with greater access to the outdoors. As a result, they develop fewer diseases and do not need as many antibiotics. But some modern farms feed antibiotics as a matter of course - not just to cure an illness, which is the intended purpose.

The Soil Association has just made a press release about it. Richard Young, Soil Association policy adviser, said:

“We estimate that a move to less intensive, more health-oriented livestock farming, could reduce farm antibiotic use by up to 75%. This would help to safeguard the future effectiveness of critically important drugs, and over the coming years, save countless human lives.

“The Government needs to get a grip on the situation quickly. Despite a warning from the House of Lords in 1998 on the veterinary use of fluoroquinolones and the increasing concern of the WHO and European regulators more recently, it has taken no effective action, and the use of these life-saving drugs is now increasing exponentially, year after year.

“We accept there are occasions when these antibiotics should legitimately be used on farms to prevent the death or suffering of large mammals like cattle and pigs. But it is quite clear that through ignorance of the long-term consequences, many vets and farmers are still choosing them just because they are modern medicines, when for most conditions there are equally effective alternatives.”

Government figures just published show another big jump in the veterinary use of two of the most important classes of antibiotics in human medicine. This is the sixth time in the last seven years that both fluoroquinolone and cephalosporin use has increased. In comparison with 2001, fluoroquinolone use in 2007 is up by 48% and cephalosporin use up by 138%. This despite large falls in livestock numbers over the same period. Since 2001 [4] pig numbers have fallen by 17%, poultry by 7%, cattle by 3% and sheep by 8%. [5]

Click here for the full press release and free downloads. (source: Soil Association)

Official figures from the UK government indicate that indutrialised farming systems are increasing their reliance and misuse of antibiotics. Contrary to the myth that intensive systems are more efficient. Visit the Sheepdrove blog tomorrow to read more.

Liz Rothschild has met success at the Edinburgh Festival with a play that brings back to life Rachel Carson, one of the key scientists who made the world aware of the way we pollute the planet. The play - ”Another Kind of Silence” - has received some great reviews and was awarded four stars in The List.

Sheepdrove Eco Conference Centre was one of the venues for the original play - it made a big impact on the audience here, so it’s wonderful to see Liz and her production team continuing to capture hearts and minds.

A recent visit to Sheepdrove by children and parents from Croydon with Good Food Matters has inspired ideas for a food centre. Eveylyn Findlater, who organised the group, is a cookery author as well as a activist for healthy and sustainable food. She loved the farm, the conference centre, the kitchen garden and the herb garden - which sparked visions for what could happen in an urban setting for the benefit of the local community.

We wish Evelyn and the team lots of luck with the future project!

Sheepdrove organic chickens featured on BBC Radio 4

How your organic chicken is reared is probably easier to talk about than how it dies. Farming Today and Farming Today This Week looked into the way chickens are slaughtered in the UK. Radio 4’s Charlotte Smith came to see the processing unit at Sheepdrove Organic Farm, and watched what happened.

She was actually rather impressed with the way that we deal with chickens. It’s a hands-on job with lots of care and attention. Charlotte asked some very important questions at Sheepdrove and staff had no problem giving straightforward answers.

Colin Nicholl, who manages the processing unit, pointed out that the birds, after being hung by their legs on shackles, are not struggling but calm. We have a ‘comfort plate’ - a long, smooth surface the chickens stroke against as they move along the line - which helps to calm them.

Charlotte said, “I’ve never been to somehwere like this before, and I was actually, honestly, very surprised when we came in because, once they are in the shackles and they’re upside down, most of them are so still, I thought these ones were already dead.”

Sheepdrove Organic Farm have begun a cleaner chicken revolution by developing new technology that means birds come out with less bacteria on their skin. We have a more hygienic alternative to the ’scald tank’ used by everyone else - we have a hotbox! Read what Guardian writer Felicity Lawrence thinks…

Sheepdrove Organic Farm kills its organic free-range chickens on the farm so they have an extraordinarily short journey from the field of about 1 mile. We also process chckens for other organic and free-range growers - nevertheless, ours is a small-scale abattoir. Whereas Sheepdrove deal with about 8,000 birds each week, Radio 4 also looked at a place that kills 3 million chickens per week!

You can listen again to this BBC Radio 4 programme. Here is the BBC iplayer link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00cwn99 

Please explore our website www.sheepdrove.com where you can learn more about the farm animals at Sheepdrove and how we look after them. Our organic free-range chickens are at the forefront of good animal welfare, with Sheepdrove taking them beyond organic standards. These birds have special habitats, herbs and renewable energy provided!

Looking for a venue that’s green, eco-friendly, sustainable?

Look no further!

Sustainably designed and run, with its groundbreaking architecture and exceptional location high on the Berkshire Downs, Sheepdrove defines a new approach to conference venues. Just 15 minutes from the M4 and less than one hour from Heathrow Airport, this purpose built centre is housed in a beautiful, eco-friendly building, set at the heart of our farm.

Sheepdrove Eco Conference Centre has a uniquely creative, welcoming atmosphere to inspire fresh thinking, motivate delegates and offer a real taste of organic, seasonal produce. All our clients love the experience and the great customer service - which is why we won the accolade of 2008 Most Excellent Dedicated Venue in the Condé Nast Johansens annual awards.

Contact our friendly team to start planning your event with us.

“Save Our Sprays” - the plea from Farmers Weekly Magazine. Are they serious? Do the multinational chemical companies actually need a helping hand to fight against EU pesticide reform?

Poor old Monsanto and friends! In fact this review of harmful substances has been on the cards for a long time, so this latest bandwagonning seems rather desperate.

FW make big hypothetical statements “…the EU Commission could wipe out 80% of pesticides…” but other bodies reckon a 15% deselection of the most harmful compounds is more likely, leaving farmers with a considerable arsenal of poisons if they wish to use them. (UK agency the PSD made estimates ranging from 15% to 85%.)

But why the campaign to continue spraying a cocktail of biocides on our food, polluting people, water and soils? The Daily Mail recently quoted Prof Vyvyan Howard, toxico-pathologist at the University of Ulster, and a member of the Government’s Advisory Committee on Pesticides, who said, ‘It has been my position for many years that a precautionary reduction in the levels of the most hazardous pesticides by substitution makes good sense.’

Pesticides that could be banned include a family of fungicides used on cereals called triazoles thought to be hormone disrupters, a potato fungicide mancozeb linked to cancer, and the insecticide family of pyrethroids - which can affect the human nervous system.

Pesticides are a sort of addiction for the ‘modern farmer’ - a habit pushed by the chemical companies who sell them fertilisers too. Actually chemical fertilisers nowadays seem to be less and less economical and sustainable because they use so much fossil fuel. And their effect is often fast, sappy growth, making crops more vulnerable to attack from pests… which forces farmers to resort to pesticides as a matter of course.

If you would rather choose an organic future, take a look at our website and online shop.

READING AROUND…
> an interesting discussion about this recently on Radio 4.
> Blog site ‘Not Delia’ discusses the SOS campiagn

Cute wild and domestic animals feature on our home page this week. And a special offer on organic chickens. Find out more about the farm’s new Alpacas and our wildlife on www.sheepdrove.com

Most people think of mammals as cute, but reptiles and invertebrates get a mixed reception. Why is that - self protective instincts perhaps? The photos below show a Common Lizard and Giant Wood Wasp - both seen at the farm this week. The huge wasp was spotted by children who visited yesterday with Good Food Matters.

Everyone thought the wood wasp was going to sting, but it’s harmless - the long spike is for laying eggs, it’s called an ovipositor. And did you know - a female Common Lizard gives birth to live young?