Fullards Farm

Neil's parents bought Fullards Farm in the 1950's when they ran a mixed arable and pig unit. The farm now extends to 325 acres, the majority being arable land growing wheat and oil seed rape with the exception of the grass field opposite the house and a small paddock along South Street. The land is a loamy clay and is good strong combineable crop land.

The grassfield is grazed by a small flock of Ryeland and Shetland sheep, owned by neighbours, Tony and Val. Annabel's previous lambing experiences of large flocks in Shropshire are called into play each spring when the ewes lamb down and for the other sheep management issues such as feet trimming, spraying and worming. We had a very successful lambing in 2011 with 7 pairs of twins and two singles, all good strong healthy lambs.

The old machinery paddock is being brought back into play for the "pig project", three weaners have arrived and settled in very quickly developing themselves a wallow and looking forward to weekends where they tend to attract a crowd of onlookers at feeding time.

In 2004 and 2005 the ancient ridge and furrow grass meadow opposite the house was the focus of a conservation plan that included the planting of 600 metres of new mixed native species hedgerow, stockfencing and reintroduction of stock grazing, the opening out of one pond, dredging of a second and creation of a third and the sowing of a native wildflower mix alongside the public footpath. The immediate wildlife benefits of this project included an increase in the numbers of voles, field mice, frogs, newts, swallows and the hunting of the field by a pair of barn owls. In December 2009 the first section of the newly planted hedge was laid and we are delighted with the results, we plan on doing further sections over the next few years as they reach an appropriate height.

The farm is in the Environmental Stewardship Entry Level Scheme, as part of this the grassfield continues to be a no/low input meadow as part of which a hay crop is taken off by some neighbours in the summer and is grazed by Bruno and his wives in the winter. In addition around the farm there are 9 acres of grass margins, field corners and pollen and nectar corners as well as a further 4 acres of game cover crops which provide food and shelter both for the game birds and other farmland birds.

We have put up a large number of bird boxes, including tree sparrow boxes - this red list species is doing quite well in Woodhurst with up to 70 being seen in the locality at one time, some of these are known to be using our bird boxes in 2011. Barn Owl boxes have also been put up around the farm, a licensed owl specialist confirmed in April 2011 that a pair was using one of the boxes that we put up in 2010.

In 2007 we commissioned a farm wide bird survey and a survey of the flora in the grassfield. The bird survey noted 46 species, which is above average for the East of England, this does not include the local owl population (Barn Owl, Little Owl and Tawny) as they were not out and about during the dawn survey periods. Wild mammals observed in Spring 2010 included a pair of Muntjac deer and their fawn, a doe Roe deer, fox and stoat in the grassfield. We have also seen Chinese Water deer using an old spinney on the farm for shelter.

Neil and his brother, Paul, have established a tradition of planting trees around the farm on Boxing Day. In 2008 fifty trees were planted around an old pond just off the bridleway running up to the Wyton Airfield. Around forty trees were planted on Boxing Day 2009; frozen ground conditions over Christmas 2010 delayed planting until the new year when a further fifty trees were put in.