Farming:
Littlestoke is farmed by Guy Hildred and his team. Guy runs a productive agricultural business. A conventional system with up-to-date equipment and covers 1000’s of acres of farms which are no longer run by individual farming families, contract farming. Guy currently has a mixed herd of beef cattle which graze the meadows at Littlestoke. They are also winter housed here to provide manure for the arable production on our site. Crops grown at Little Stoke by Guy are Winter Wheat, a small amount of Barley due to it’s vulnerability as a crop in this area, Morphine poppies, Oilseed rape and an overwinter animal fodder as a food break to help with black grass management. Prior to this time other crops grown would have been high quality milling wheats, barley for beers, sugar beet, as well as maize for the dairy cows, and kale and beans for animal feeds. We also had a 200 head dairy unit of Holstein Friesians which we closed it in 2000 because it had become challenging in our buildings as well as financially. George Davis and Paul Stephens are the brilliant main knowledgable hands on the land.
In 2017 we will see new legislations on rotations. See our blog for discussions about this.
Horticulture:
Littlestoke is home to ‘Green and Gorgeous’. A wonderful horticulture business which took over from my organic box scheme in 2008. The business is owned by Rae and Ash. They grow beautiful and high quality flowers for wedding and homes on 6 acres both outside and in tunnels. Rae and Ash also grow a few vegetables and sell eggs from the farm. See www.greenandgorgeousflowers.co.uk for their stunning diversity and quality of husbandry.
Courses:
Green and Gorgeous run courses on growing flowers for domestic and commercial growers. We hope one day to bring back vegetable growing courses to this setting and also hope to run courses for children on a diversity of subjects from the arts, food and nutrition to music and horses. Please have a look at our Blog for more information on this.