Farming Facts

How big is the Farm?

Park Farm is 360 acres or 142 hectares.  We farm it with the adjoining Castle Farm, also 360 acres.  Both farms were in the ownership of the Bylaugh Estate which was sold in 1919.  We acquired Castle Farm in 1929 and Park Farm in 1946.

What we grow:

As the farm is predominately heavy clay soil and we have no irrigation, the decision was taken some years ago to grow only combinable crops.  The crops for this year are winter wheat, oilseed rape, spring barley and maize.  We also have 250 acres of permanent grassland which feeds our suckler beef cattle.

 

Livestock

We have a herd of 100 breeding cows including 40 pedigree White Park rare breed cows.  They have one calf a year each which are reared for beef or sold to other breeders and rearers.

 

Soils

A wide variety of different soil types can be found on Castle and Park Farms.  The southern end of the farm near the hamlet of Woodgate consists of fields of fairly heavy clay soils.  Difficult to work in wet conditions but can produce excellent crops of grass, wheat and oilseed rape, due to the lands water retention qualities.

The land slopes down to the River Wensum to the north, some 50ft below the Woodgate level.  Here will be found the alluvial silts and gravel lands formed by the glaciers many centuries previously, overlying these soils is peat.
Between Woodgate and the Wensum the fields vary from a fairly heavy clay loam to light, sandy easy working soil, ideal for sugar beet, potatoes and root vegetables.

Machinery:

Tractors

We have one principal tractor of 115 horsepower which does all the heavy work.

We also have a small Ford 4100 of 40 horsepower.  This does light jobs such as grass cutting, hayturning and pulling a small trailer.

 

Teleporter

The most useful and versatile machine on the farm.  It can lift,
2.5 tons to 5 metres, load dig, pull, with great precision.  It can be used as an access platform to repair roofs, lop tree branches and a host of other jobs around the farm.