Peter Hall's Smallholding
My smallholding is about forty acres on the
Blackdown Hills in Somerset

I joined the Environmentally Sensitive Area scheme a few years ago which is available on the Blackdown Hills and the modest payments I recieve subsidise the maintainance costs for the animals.I am not allowed to fertilise the ground under the E.S.A.
scheme and so the money compensates for the dreadful yield of hay that my land gives.About twenty acres of my holding is classed as a Site of Special Scientific Interest which I am all in favour of.The only disadvantage is that sometimes I have the odd beaurocrat wandering about on my land without asking and acting as though they own the place.A lot of my ground is very wet and highly susceptable to poaching.Apart from careful management of the grazing regime I am going to start keeping Dexter cattle when I need replacements as they have a smaller impact on the ground ( and they qualify for suckler premium)
On my holding I also keep sheep,pigs,turkeys,chickens,peacocks and guinea fowl.I used to have geese too but foxes cleared them out last winter.My wife keeps two horses and two daughters on the smallholding too!
 
 
This is Mr Bully,My Pedigree Aberdeen Angus Bull,having his tea!
I keep ten cows on the smallholding,mostly Angus and I bought this rather fine bull from a retiring farmer.He has become very friendly but doesnt really have enough to do.I was hoping to hire him out but Foot & Mouth has prevented that at least for the moment.
I bought the bull for £500. after spending in excess of £300 per year on hiring a bull in.After 1999 when the hired bull only managed to successfully sire two calves from ten cows, I thought having my own bull could be more economical.We shall see in a few weeks when the calves are born.
Here is a better picture of the Aberdeen Angus bull.
He is seven years old so might be considered just past it by the serious farmer but I think I was very lucky to be able to get such a good looking bull for the price I paid.He will not be overworked with only seven wives this year but hopefully they will be enough to deter him from taking at trip to see the neighbours cows.
July 2001
First calf of 2001.A nice angus bull calf with just a dash of hereford.The hereford strain was introduced a few years ago by the A.I. service,who gave one of my angus sucklers the wrong stuff.Even Mr Bully's influence has not removed the white face characteristic. 
I used to keep breeding sows but found that as a part time hobby farmer they were too much work.Now I fatten a few and sell one or two of them in order to keep my freezer stocked 
These Wild Boar cross Tamworth are nearly fit to go and they make very good eating too!
I keep a few American Bronze Turkeys on the  holding and these two are the stags (males)-Batman & Robin.They are very aggressive in the spring and attack everything which invades their territory,including my Alsation dog, the children and me if my back is turned.However,they don't appear to be capable of inflicting serious injury so they are tolerated by the family!I try to breed and raise about fifteen birds a year for the freezer,but the females are bad mothers and I hatch eggs in the incubator.Results are variable and I only seem to be able to achieve about 20%' egg to freezer' ratio
July 2001. The first batch of turkey chicks out of the brooder.Sadly it looks as though I will not have very many turkeys for the freezer this year as most of the eggs have been infertile.Some fresh blood  in the breeding stock for next year will be needed 

 
 
 
 
Mrs Brown,the Jersey House Cow has been around a long time and is something of a pet.She is very friendly and calves easily to Aberdeen Angus.

 
Neika,my fierce Alsation protects the family from would be intruders,which includes just about everyone in her book
However,nobody has suffered any damage from her to date and mostly she is just impressive in her protective display.
She does not look quite so good when she gets attacked by the sheep,turkeys or peacock but then does the right thing and hides,probably hoping nobody saw her.
The ram bowled her right over once,full marks for tolerance !
The Indian Blue Peacock is one of three cock birds I keep but I only have two female at the moment due to a fox attack last year.This bird is about ten years old and pretty street wise when it comes to foxes.In the Spring he will try and mate with anything which will stand still in front of him whilst he is showing off-dog guinea fowl-sheep-even my poor daughter!
I don't think very many people have peacocks eating food through the kitchen window !
This is one of the girls-Camilla,looking pretty in all pink which the peacock seems to have the sulks about!
RETURN TO HOME PAGE -CLICK HERE