About the farm

Farm information
Contact details
Farm name: Court Farm Country
Park
Farm address:
Wolvershill Road
Banwell
Weston-s-Mare
Contact person: Edward Gwyn
Post code: BS29 6DL
Tel no: 01934 822383
Email: info@courtfarmcountrypark.co.uk
Website address: www.courtfarmcountrypark.
co.uk
Booking a visit
In the first instance, please telephone the farm to discuss your visit.
Cost of visit: C hildren £3.25
Teachers free
Remember, you will need to organise and pay for transport.
Cancellation arrangements
If you are unable to carry out your visit, please let us know as soon as
About the farm possible so that we can make alternative arrangements.
How to get here
Court Farm is signposted from
Junction 21 of the M5.
On arrival
On arriving at Court Farm, your coach will be greeted by one of our guides who will make sure that you enter the park and are briefed on the days events.

What you can do on the farm
A typical visit includes:
10 a.m – arrival
10.15 – a guided tour around the farm including a chance to meet all the farms livestock.
11.00 – Watch the milking show
11.45 – bottle-feeding in the animal barn
12.15 – wash hands and lunch time (indoors if wet)
1.30 – tractor rides around the farm
1.45 – play time
2.30 – wave goodbye.
Animal Handling, interviews with the farmer, feeding times, tractor rides, pond dipping, field walks, arable crops, maize maze, the milking show.
Areas available for your own fieldwork:
All areas of the farm are accessible under supervision. This includes the farmyards and fields.
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Facilities:
A covered area suitable as a meeting point, for packed lunches or for wet weather activities: The Saloon barn
Picnic area: Directly outside the entrance and tearooms.
Toilets: At the tearooms and by the animal barn
Hand-washing facilities: At the tearooms, the animal barn toilets and in the playbarn.
Access for those with disabilities: All the farmyard is accessible for wheelchaors. Disabled toilets are located at the tearooms.
Meeting point if children get lost: The Tearooms
Place to go to if there is an emergency: The Tearooms
About the farm

Farm profile
History:
The Gwyn family have farmed at Court Farm for over 35 years and have opened the farm to the general public for the last 15years. Up until 1997, the farm was used for dairying with a herd of 100 Friesian cows. The farm is now home to a herd of Suckler cows, a breeding flock of sheep and a variety of arable enterprises including wheat, barley and maize. The farm is mainly grass which is used for the livestock and to provide hay and silage for winter feed. In the past Court Farm has been involved in the production of yoghurt and cream together with the growing of crops such as potatoes, fodderbeet, kale and turnips. Today the farm enterprise is combined with the visitor attraction and a function business.
Soil:
Heavy Clay cape:
The 108 acres of Court Farm is mainly flat, with the farmyard situated at the top of a slope
Typical south west weather – plenty of rain and sunshine
Lands
Climat e:
Who lives and works here
Peter and Trisha Gwyn live on the farm and are helped by Edward Gwyn and their son-in-law Raul Caycho. During the summer many part time staff provide the necessary help to cope with the influx of visitors
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Encouraging wildlife:
The farm is host to many different species of wildlife including, foxes, badgers, rabbits, hares, herons, hedgehogs, snakes, kingfishers, owls, woodpeckers and bats. To actively encourage wildlife, four ponds have been created on the farm, some of which are stocked with carp. The field margins are left to encourage wildlife and hedges are only cut in the winter. A local river runs through the farm and provides a perfect habitat for many small mammals. In certain fields, woodpiles have been created to encourage insects and small mammals. Over the years many extra trees have been planted on the farm.
Other enterprises:
As well as being a working farm, Court Farm is an open farm receiving over
50,000 visitors each year. A successful function business has also been started in one of our converted barn and plays host to 30 events and concerts each year. One of our current projects is to start a small scale carp fishery on the farm.
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Using the land
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About the farm

A day in the life of the farmer
We do different things on the farm each season.
SPRING SUMMER
In spring we turn out all the cows and sheep.
We also prepare to fields to make sure t he grass grows. Our sheep give birth.
In summer we mow the long grass to make hay and silage to feed the animals in the winter. This is the time of year when our cows give birth.
AUTUMN WINTER
The combine cuts our wheat and the forage harvester cuts our maize to feed the cows. We make straw out of whats left of the wheat.
All our animals come inside for the winter and are fed on all the summer crops .
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Growing crops
Oilseed rape
Sown: August
Look for fields of bright yellow flowers in spring.
Harvested: July
Use: Seeds are crushed for oil, used in cooking oil, for fuel, animal feed, cosmetics and medicines. The rest of the plant is chopped up and put back into the soil.
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Growing crops
Winter wheat
Sown: September/October
Look for “ears” of wheat growing on the stem in the summer.
Harvested: August
Us e: Grains in the “ears” are used for making flour and animal feed. Stalks are used for straw or ploughed back into the soil.
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Growing crops
Peas and beans
Sown: April
Look for pods on stems in clumps, low to the ground in early summer.
Harvested: July
Use: The peas are used for our food. Beans are used to feed cattle. The rest is ploughed back into the soil.
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Growing crops
Potatoes
Plant: April
Look for plants growing in ridges of soil in the summer.
Harvested: September/October
Use: The potatoes under the ground are used for our food.
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Growing crops
Linseed
Sown: October or March
Look for fields of blue flowers in late spring and early summer.
Harvested: August
Use: The seeds are crushed for oil and the rest of the plant is ploughed back into the soil.
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Growing crops
Maize
Sown: April
Look for tall, green, leafy plants with tassels and cobs of corn in late summer.
Harvested: September and October
Use: Whole plant is chopped up as winter animal feed.
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Growing crops
Sugar beet
Planted: March
Look for large green leaves in rows. The harvested roots are heaped in clamps in the autumn.
Harvested: September to December
Use: The root is used to make sugar and the waste is turned into animal feed.
Leaf tops are fed to animals or ploughed back into the ground.
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Growing crops
Barley
Sown: September and October
Look for the way it ripples like waves in the wind.
Harvested: August
Use: Turned into beer and whisky and animal feed. The stalks are used for straw or ploughed back into the soil.
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Growing crops
Winter oats
Sown: September
Look at how the grain grows higgledy-piggledy off the stalk.
Harvested: August
Use: Turned into food for us, such as porridge. The stalks are ploughed back into the fields
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Growing crops
Grass
This is the most common crop grown by farmers.
Sown: March to September, but can then be left for more than one year.
Look for the many different types of grass growing in the field.
Harvested: Summer, or grazed by animals all year round
Uses: For animals grazing, or cut and stored as hay or silage for animal feed
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Keeping animals
Dairy cows
Numbers kept : Court Farm used to have a herd of 100 milking cows . We now have just two who star in the Milking Show daily.
Breed : Friesian
What they eat : Fresh grass in the fields in summer and in winter preserved grass as hay or silage. They also eat special feed when they come into the parlour twice a day to be milked.
How they are kept : In covered yards in winter and in the fields the rest of the year
Why they are kept for milk production
Lifecycle Dairy cows must first give birth to a calf in order to produce milk.
Usually, each cow will have a calf every year until she is 8
– 10 years old.
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Keeping animals
Sheep
We keep a breeding flock of 100 ewes (female sheep) and three rams (male sheep). Our ewes mainly lamb between mid February and late march. They can have as many as 200 lambs.
Breed(s) . We have a flock of mainly Texel and Suffolk x sheep.
What they eat : The sheep eat fresh grass in the fields for most of the year. Over the winter and before lambing they receive extra food such as hay, oats or barley.
How they are kept : The sheep live outside in the fields most of the year but kept in covered yards before lambing
Why they are kept : M ost sheep are kept for meat rather than their wool
Lifecycle: M ost sheep mate in the autumn to produce lambs in the spring. As the weather gets warmer, the sheep are sheared for their wool.
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Keeping animals
Pigs
We have one pig on our farm. They are sows (female pigs).
Breed(s) : Our largest pig is an Gloucester Old Spot.
What they eat : Our pigs are fed controlled amounts of food such as wheat, barley, potatoes, corn, fishmeal and skimmed milk
How they are kept : S ome pigs are kept entirely within buildings where the temperature is constant. On other farms, pigs may live in an open field with shelters called arks.
Why they are kept : Pigs are kept for pork and bacon
Lifecycle: Female pigs, called sows, have ten to twelve piglets in the average litter. Each sow can produce about five litters in two years.
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Keeping animals
Chickens
Numbers kept : We have many free range chickens on the farm.
Breed : Light Sussex, Rhode Island Reds and Bantams.
What they eat : T hey are fed grain, but also find food for themselves such as seeds and worms
How they are kept : H ens kept outside are called free-range. They sleep in henhouses at night, safe from foxes.
Why they are kept : T hey are kept for egg production
Lifecycle: H ens normally lay eggs that are unfertilised, which means that no chicks will grow in them. If a farmer wants to produce chicks, rather than eggs to eat, he has to mate his hens with a cockerel. The fertile eggs then hatch into chicks.
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Keeping animals
Beef cattle
Numbers kept 12 cows (female) and 1 bull (male) together with their offspring.
Breed(s) W e have a pedigree herd of Red Ruby Devon cattle..
What they eat : They eat fresh grass in the fields in summer, and in winter preserved grass as hay or silage.
How they are kept : They are kept in covered yards in winter and in the fields the rest of the year
Why they are kept : B eef cattle are kept for meat
Lifecycle: A cow can have calves after she is two years old. Forty weeks after mating she gives birth to one or sometimes two calves. They stay with their mother and feed on her milk until old enough to graze for themselves.
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Farm processes:
Preparing the soil
This plough has blades that makes narrow trenches called furrows. As the blades cut through the soil, they bury the weeds and any remains of last year’s crop. Ploughing also helps the air to circulate and the water to drain. When the tractor reaches the end of the field, the plough blades are turned over so that the next set of furrows will lie in the same direction. This makes it easier when sowing the seeds.
However, there is a lot less ploughing done nowadays and other ways of looking after the soil structure are used instead.
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Farm processes:
Harrowing
When small seeds such as grass are to be sown, the earth must first be broken into fine soil. This is normally done immediately after ploughing.
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Farm processes:
Sowing
The machines used for sowing have drills (tubes) that sow the seeds neatly in rows in the prepared ground. Sometimes the harrow and seed drills are combined so that both processes take place at the same time. Gaps for the tractor wheels are left unplanted so that the crops are not damaged by the machinery working in the field. These gaps are called ‘tramlines’.
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Farm processes:
Rolling
Rolling makes the ground firm around the seeds so that the moist soil is next to the seeds.
This helps them to germinate and reduces damage from pests such as slugs.
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Farm processes:
Helping the crops to grow
The crops need to be protected from weeds and diseases if they are to grow well.
Fertiliser gives the plants extra nutrients so that they grow larger and stronger. Some crops, such as potatoes, need extra water.
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Farm processes:
Harvesting
The crops are cut with different machines.
The combine harvester cuts the wheat and barley, separates grain from the ears and then throws out the stalks. The stalks are either baled as straw by another machine or chopped up and left on the soil. When the grain tank is full, a tractor drives up alongside and the grain is poured into its trailer.
Fresh grass that is to be preserved as silage is cut and allowed to wilt for a few hours in the field. It is then collected in bales, which are polythene wrapped to keep the air out, or picked up, chopped and put into polythene covered stores called clamps. Silage is used to feed the animals in the winter.
Grass that is to be preserved as hay is cut and allowed to dry before being baled. Hay is also used as animal feed in the winter.
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Teachers Notes :
About the farm