Land Demonstration at Weston Park Farms

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What is happening in Weston?

Market Garden

In 2024 we launched Weston Park Veg, our new no-dig market garden at Irongate Farm. So far we have grown tomatoes, cucumbers, chard, kale, aubergines, bell peppers, and many other crops sold in the Larder at Lannock Farm.

The garden has a simple aim: to produce the freshest, most nutritious produce for our local community in a nature-friendly way. We’re excited to see where the garden goes from here, with plans to expand and explore new sales channels, including a potential veg box scheme.

A Market Garden with a Polytunnel and No-Dig Beds

Mob Grazing

Mob grazing is a system that mimics the natural grazing patterns of herbivores, to boost grass growth, promote strong root structure, and an even spread of manure. This is achieved through high stocking density and short-duration grazing – we move our cows onto fresh grass every day, allowing the pasture behind them to recover. The longer rest periods also help to break parasite lifecycles.

At Weston, we began mob grazing in 2012. Since then, we’ve become Pasture For Life (PFL) certified, meaning our cattle’s diet is 100% grass-based. Our PFL beef has higher omega-3 fatty acids than grain-fed beef, and more conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), a natural antioxidant, thought to lower the risk of heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.

John Cherry giving a talk about Mob Grazing with an audience of cows and people.

Walnut Orchard

After completing a course at Warwickshire Walnuts, we decided to plant our own walnut silvopasture system here at Weston. Just before Christmas in 2024, we planted 110 walnut trees (8 different varieties) in a 2ha grid with 15m spacing. Silvopastoral systems offer many proven benefits for livestock, including significant live weight gains and increased social interactions. The trees also provide our livestock shelter from rain or sun, depending on the season.

Coupled with the creation of a local supply chain for seasonal nuts, it made perfect sense to integrate this system into our ongoing land diversification efforts.

3 men stand behind a Walnut Tree in a cactus guard.

The Calf at Foot Dairy

The Calf at Foot Dairy™️ is a pioneering micro-dairy founded by Fiona Provan, through her belief that dairy cows should keep their calves until their natural weaning age – putting welfare before profit, because health, happiness and the ethical treatment of animals should always come first.

Fiona runs training courses for those who wish to have a couple of family milking cows for household use, as well as for those looking to set up their own calf-suckling dairy and bring their milk to market.

A bottle of milk and cream on a Calf at Foot sign

Pasture Reared Poultry

We have trialed pasture-reared poultry at Weston for the last two years, achieving varying levels of success. During the trials, we used the Joel Salatin broiler shelter for our chickens but found it wasn’t quite fit for our context. Unfortunately, we lost quite a few chickens to some spaniels—next time, we’ll avoid putting them near footpaths!

Producing healthy, happy, and nutritious pasture-reared chicken to sell to our local community has been fantastic, so finding a solution remains a priority. One idea we’re considering is installing a more permanent and sophisticated electric fence system under the walnut orchard.

Some chickens scratching around in a pasture.

Land Demonstration