Flowers or Food?!

Herbal Ley Flowers or Food

Well the answer is both!

We feed our beautiful shorthorn cattle diverse species herbal leys.

This week Will and Charlie spent some time sampling a small section of the field we currently have our ‘finishing’ cattle in.

Here is all the plants they found……

White Clover

Timothy Grass

Meadow Fiscue

Common Yarrow

Common Chicory

Common Birds Foot

Sheeps Parsley

Mayweed

Perennial Ryegrass

Cocks Foot

Red Clover

Dock

Dandelion

Plantain

Fat Hen

Red Campion

Red Shank

A quick walk through these fields and your ears are buzzing with the sound of crickets and gentle buzz of busy bees. Providing a habitat for our insect life in turn supports our bird life on the farm.

These diverse pastures improve the health and structure of our soils. The legumes in the field such as the red clover fix nitrogen in the soil and improve carbon sequestration.

Our cattle absolutely love munching their way through these fields, think of it as a smorgasbord for bovines. A different taste in every bite!

This really is food production with nature at its heart. Happy, healthy cattle, happy soils, and happy wildlife all make for nutritious and delicious beef. Everyone really is a winner!