A Farm in Oxford

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I hitched a ride with work's web team to Oxford to check out this farm. Caution! This farm is not your average farm, this is the exception, not the rule. Someday I will post the rule so you can see the difference and judge for yourself. This farm is a working educational farm associated with Oxford University, McDonald's and Tescos (a large supermarket in the UK). They are organic and critter friendly. As an educational farm they work to make a profit, but are currently not making money. A primary reason for this is much of the things they need (corn, fencing equipment) cannot be readily purchased as China is buying it for their mind blogging expansion of protein production. Happily I can report that China is interested in establishing a model farm based on this model for education of their producers.

I got a good question asking why is it cool that pigs have a big pile of hay/straw, or for that matter anything other than food and water!

So here goes: With a big barrier like straw, they don't have to see each other or be near each other and thus they don't fight so much. Also adds dimensional complexity to the pen. Sort of the same thing as a child living in a bare room with a blanket (the bedding), now add a toy truck. Life just got a bit better. Reducing the boredom and such reduces the behavior of tail biting, and fighting. When pigs are kept in a more enriching environment, the need to cut off their tails and clip off the pointy bits of their teeth is eliminated. You'll notice these little guys all have their tails!

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Photos

Howdy y'all
Welcome to the farm. I'm Saler (breed) from France. Remember to dip your feet and kill all those city germs! Breathe the fresh air and run if you see advancing water - we are in the river Thames' flood zone. Not only that but the river is just a few hundred yards away from me and every year we are flooded for longer periods of time!

Silos filled with feed and a house
Prices of organic feed have just about doubled.

Deep rut in pastures
Flooding, constant rain and heavy machinary don't mix.

Dead chicks
This really doesn't need much explaination. Though, the imagery of putting straight chicks in a bag is really just too much! Some words have so many different meanings. Straight, straight, or straight away?
Their percentage of dead is far below industry standards.
I think the fly is a nice touch.

Chicks on their way to you
The farm plays sounds recorded from the farm to acclimate the chicks to sounds they may experience: trackers, airplanes, mass groups of school kids stopping by to see a cow, etc. These guys get so many visitors that they don't all run away when groups enter the building.

Electric fence
Not sure if this fence is to manage the critters or the encroaching urbanites that want to live in the country and then complain that it smells and roosters can't tell time. The plastic on the ground is to keep the rapidly growing grass from shorting out the circuit. Always hold on to another person before you grab an electric fence! And no worries farmers always turn off the fence when outsiders are visiting. :0

Pigs in a pen
The amazing thing about this is that the pigs have LOTS of bedding, a visual/physical barrier and running room. Run pig run!

Curiousity is not species specific
Thanks for visiting!

Love Birds, Literally
After the farm tour we all went to the local pub, before heading back to London. Yep, no doubt about it, I'm in the UK!

Plea from Pork producers
Saw this ad in the underground on my way home from the day on the farm.

Comments

[Mom]

Good idea!!
Finally found this. Good work!! Keep it up!!

[sss]

Wow - nice blog!
Very nice red cow.

[Marni]

Oooh, I wanna be a farmer in Oxford
Grand blog, Jen. Thanks for putting this up. I just love the first cow shot - so animated. -m.