Julie Palmer
Bradworthy, Devon
A working farm where the flora and fauna are nurtured
Field Irish Farm is a 120 acre farm that was passed to me after my uncle’s death in 2019, with the promise that the farm would carry on and the flora and fauna would continue to be nurtured.

The meadows we have are original pre war meadows, full of wildflowers. Hedges are allowed to grow with large overhanging trees used as shelter for the cattle and wild deer. In the summer the noise from insects and birds is amazing

We have a herd of pedigree belted galloway and riggit cattle which we use for conservation grazing. No fertilisers, or chemicals are used and fields are not cut until seed heads have dried. Old machinery has been brought back into use and the size means that we can keep soil compaction to a minimum. We intend to show that old ways of farming can still work and produce outstanding quality meat without harming the natural environment.

Other "Me and my Meadow" stories

Cami and Jamie’s meadow
Dartington Estate
Cami Rose and Jamie Perrelet's stewardship of The Meadow, a wild pollinator and honeybee sanctuary, on the Dartington Estate, Totnes.

Bronwen & Martin Gundry
Blackdown Hills AONB
A 38 acre farm with a variety of habitats, including unimproved pastures and hay meadows

Rebecca and Chris Gethin
Higher Pudsham, Buckland-in-the-Moor
A former pony and goat paddock is now a wildlife sanctuary.

Louisiana Lush and Julian Granville
Luppitt, Blackdown Hills AONB
The ongoing transformation of two farms - 200 acres of mixed meadows, woodland and wood pasture - to what they would have been like prior to the 1970s