Turchington Farm

This is the Turchington Farm team, comprising of Andrew and Melanie Kneebone. Then there is Leanne, Andrew and daughter Hayley Barriball. Just down the road once lived Granny Vera, and now still lives Martin, Megan and their children Elouise, Sophia, Poppy and Alexander Kneebone. Everyone does their share to make things work!

The farm comprises of 210 acres of mainly grassland growing beef, sheep and a menagerie of other animals kept for social purposes, basically they make us laugh or drive us mad. The farm is right on the Devon and Cornwall border, with a mile of the river Tamar on the land that’s how close it is.

The family have farmed here since 1901 so are 4th, 5th and 6th generation famers, the 6th being all the little young farmers that have come along.

The farm runs a cattle herd of about 150 made up of 60-70 breeding cows, bulls and young stock. These are primarily Hereford X, but there are a few odd breeds dotted about as well.
We took the decision in 2024 to get rid of the main sheep flock leaving only 7 that we have kept for hefting purposes. This is so we can concentrate on regenerating our soils, helping to rebalance key minerals which are lacking to help improve the health of the sheep flock when we bring them back at some point.

By focusing on our soil health this is helping us to create healthier animals, and healthier food for us to eat, and essentially this is creating less work for us as well.

There is also the start of an eclectic collection of other animals as well, chickens, pigs, ducks, goats, guinea pigs, cats with the view of having more in the future. These are mainly to reintroduce the fun back into farming. Everything seems to have gotten all too serious which when working with animals seems wrong. It is fun though to see what animals we will have by the end of each year.

The aim is to produce meat in the most ethically and sustainable way possible, happy farmers equals a happy farm hence the funny animals.