Regular visitors to our holiday lets will know that we have been working towards establishing a beef herd at Stolford, and that I have changed my mind dozens of times regarding breed. In the end we settled on British Friesian Hereford crosses, from an organic dairy farm in Leicestershire. We wanted to kick off with …
Once again it’s been a bit of a damp August, but we got about a five day weather window in the early part of the month. Our grazer, Steve Hutchings, managed to mow and bale about a 100 acres in a week. He baled a mixture of haylage in wrapped round bales, and straight meadow …
Once again, we have been hampered by the wet August weather, but Steve Hutchings managed to combine the barley in Brown Lane last week just before the current stretch of wet weather that has been with us since about August 14th. It’s our first organic cereal crop since the official commencement of our organic status …
Just a reminder of some of the glorious scenery our visitors can walk to from Middle Stolford or the Cowshed. These pictures were taken on an afternoon walk in mid-July. They show some of what can be seen on the way to Clatworthy reservoir, on the southern tip of the farm, as you travel down …
Backdated to January 1st 2020, Stolford Farm has been granted organic status, and we have also had our Countryside Stewardship Scheme (CSS) proposals accepted. The main and most obvious impact of organic status means that no chemical fertilizers, pesticides, or herbicides will be used at Stolford in the future, and all our seed, feed, and …
From July 4th this year we have been able to offer Middle Stolford guests a brand new facility to make their stay with us even more exciting and memorable. New stone steps lead down onto an Indian Slate patio with two outside patio tables with parasols, sun loungers, and a 5 seater hot tub. A …
At Stolford we always say we are 3 weeks behind in terms of the garden. Each year daffodils are starting to go over in the coastal towns and villages whilst we are still eagerly awaiting our first blooms. However, from mid spring we start to catch up and it’s from this point on that some of our …
We started this project around August 2019, and we made good progress until about October. Then it started raining, and didn’t really stop until March 2020. The original stone mason got side tracked as his new pub and restaurant business started to take off, but when the weather started to ease in early March local …
Over the last couple of weeks, Steve Hutchings sheep have been arriving at Stolford Farm, so at least we’ve got some customers for our grass, even if the holiday lets are sitting vacant! There are more twins than last year, and way more grass, so now we see the results of all our work and …
It’s been a busy farming Spring all over Exmoor and Stolford Farm is no exception. Regardless of lockdown the seasons wait for nobody. All the usual activities, including about 200 acres of harrowing, a lot of farmyard manure spreading on the hay ground (it’s our best option now we have gone organic), and some tactical …
