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| SCHOOL AND GROUP VISITS TO JIMMY'S FARM - INTRODUCTION We are passionate about sharing our environment and knowledge here on the farm through formally structured courses for children and young people. Our educational visits are tailored to suit your needs and led by a trained education officer so you can relax on the day and enjoy the visit. We work hard to keep prices at a minimum for schools and colleges and the charges only just cover our costs as we are not able to apply for grants and we invest heavily in our education programme because we believe that educating people and providing good quality visits are a vital part of our overall aims. Please contact the farm direct on 08444 938088 or administration@jimmysfarm.com for booking enquiries and administration procedures. Please contact our education officer, Peter Sugar for queries relating to programme of events on 07967 582872. PRACTICALITIES • Pre-visits welcomed. • Visits welcomed all year round. • We are situated 2 miles from Ipswich on the A137 towards Manningtree off Junction 56 off the A14. • There is coach parking facilities. • Opening times are 9am – 5pm Monday to Saturday, 9am - 4pm Sunday. • The group will be led by an education officer at all times. • Please dress appropriately for the weather of the day e.g. wellies, sun hat. • Our classroom offers an (unheated) under cover eating area in bad weather and we have toilets and hand washing facilities. • BBQ usually available. • At the gate to the working farm, the education officer will verbally give a health and safety talk regarding electric fencing, moving machinery and keeping hands away from faces until they have been washed after the tour. • The education officer will lead the group to control the movement of the group. • The education officer will stop the group or move the group to the side if a vehicle approaches. • Visiting groups will not be entering enclosures that contain cows or pigs. • Disabled access is limited at present, but we are developing our farm to improve our disabled access, please phone to discuss details. • We cater for groups with special needs. • Health and Safety. Please read the Farm Visit Risk Assessment before your visit. The education officer will be first aid trained and will have a first aid kit at all times on the visit. • As we are a company, we do have to charge vat on school visits, but as an educational organisation, you can claim the vat back. JIMMY'S FARM EDUCATION COURSES 1: Farming and Food Production - Early Years, Foundation Stage, Key Stage 1, 2, 3 and 4 • Farmyard trail - An introduction to the farming methods, food production and pig welfare on Jimmy’s farm, then meet the animals. • Be a 'Farming Hero' - A comprehensive tour of the working farm. Meet and feed the pigs and piglets, explore the farrowing enclosures, breeding areas and meet the other farm animals including chickens, sheep and cows. • Vegetable and herb garden - A tour of the gardens to identify the different fruit and vegetables that are growing on the farm. Get involved with weeding, harvesting and sowing depending on the time of year. Look out for the pink tractor! 2: Sausage Making and Tasting - Key Stage 2, 3, 4 and Further Education NVQ A talk through sausage making and what we put into sausages, then sample the traditional and more unusual sausages we make on the farm. 3: Environmental Science - Early Years, Key Stage 1, 2, 3 and 4 • Explore the wood: Seasons, trees, seeds and growing • The woodland as an ecosystem • Minibeast/invertebrate study, pond dipping, life cycles, habitat comparison, identification and classification. A tour of the Butterfly House during Spring and Summer. 4: Bushcraft in the Woods - Early Years, Key Stage 1, 2 and 3 We can create a programme from the following: den building, create a camp, fire lighting, whittling, elder necklaces, the folklore of trees and people in the past. 5: Orienteering Trail - Key Stage 1 and 2 Using compasses to read bearings and follow directions in small groups on five different orienteering trails around the farm, nature trail and gardens. 6: Jimmy’s Farm as a Business - Key Stage 3 and 4 A tour of the farm and nature trail and shop to explore farm finances, costs of running the farm, ethics, diversification and the BBC influence. JIMMY'S FARM PRE-SCHOOL FUN VISITS 7: School and Group Fun visits SUPERVISED– Any age We can create a fun programme of events, usually lasting between two and three hours, led by a member of staff incorporating various activities, such as: • Talk and tour of the farm • Den Building and bushcraft • Visit the Tropical Butterfly House, in Spring and Summer only • Pond Dipping • Minibeast Hunt • Meet and feed the pigs • Meet and feed the small animals The group would be able to stay on and have unlimited access to the Nature Trail area, including the Adventure Play area. Do let us know if there are particular activities you would like to do. 8: School and Group Fun visits UNSUPERVISED – Any age If you are looking to keep costs to a minimum, but still want to come for a visit, you are welcome to come along for an unsupervised visit. There is plenty to do here on the farm, which can be supervised by your own staff members. Examples: • Den Building • Visit the Butterfly House in Spring and Summer • Woodland Walk • Adventure Play Area • Meet and feed the animals (bags of food are available at 50pence a bag) • Picnic Area We can provide a hot dog for everyone, at £2.50 per person, provided this is booked in advance. 9: Educational group Tour of farm – Any age This includes a drink on arrival and a tour of the whole farm, which the public does not usually see. The tour and drinks would last approximately two hours. You then have access to the Nature Trail area as well. PRICES Programmes 1-7 (Supervised) : £6.50 per student +vat (teachers and adult helpers free) Programme 8 (Unsupervised) : £3 per child and £4.50 per adult (adults free if 20 children or more) Programme 9 (Tour) : £6.50 per person Sausage making and tasting all ages: £2 per person BBQ sausage in a roll £2.50 per person (confirm numbers 1 week in advance ) Minimum number of students/children for supervised visits: 20. Please contact us if this is a problem. Maximum 1 adult per child. BBQ sausage in a bun available to order. Please order in advance. For Programmes 1-7, we require a deposit of £50 to secure your booking. Our tutor will contact you before the day to discuss activities, but is happy to receive calls if necessary. Please note: the fee is payable on the day (Cheques made payable to The Essex Pig Company) Quotes "A great day out - a chance for children to experience the great outdoors." (Teacher) "We had a great day at Jimmy's Farm and learnt so much! Thank you." (From 4A, 4R and 4P) "When can we come back?" (Teacher) Further information which may be of interest: Schools can gain free coach travel nationwide through the Reciproc8™ Recycling Scheme. You can book transport for school visits to farms, field study centres, botanic gardens, in fact almost anywhere. Reciproc8™ offer 49-55 seat coaches on a return travel basis with nationwide coverage to and from virtually any destination in the UK. Simply, you can gain Rewards Points for the mobile phones, inkjet cartridges and toners that you collect for recycling, then exchange your Points for items in the Rewards range. You can use your Reciproc8™ Points to exchange for transport with the added benefit that Reciproc8™arranges it for you. Register at www.reciproc8.co.uk. or call 0845 194 8288 and speak to the Reciproc8™ team. BACKGROUND TO THE FARM On Jimmy’s Farm we use traditional farming methods and animal welfare and quality come first. Come and see our traditional pig breeds, sheep, chickens, ducks and goats, plus large meadow with ponds, 30 acre woodland, Butterfly House (open Easter - October) walled kitchen vegetable garden and shop which sells locally sourced food, including meat which is produced and butchered on site. In 2003 Jimmy Doherty took over a derelict dairy farm in Suffolk to realise his dream using traditional farming methods to produce free range, rare breed pork of the highest quality. The 93 acre farm had been derelict for fifteen years. It included a thirty acre woodland, a working well, a derelict farm house and a large barn. He had plans that ‘pigs would run wild-free through ancient, shaded woodland and would be sold through a traditional farm shop situated in a crumbling cattle barn’ and the BBC followed the story of ‘The Essex Pig Company’ through the TV programme ‘Jimmy’s Farm’ Today we have rare breed pigs on our working farm mainly Saddleback, Essex and Tamworth. All the pigs are kept outside, breeding boars and sows and piglets are kept in large spacious enclosures that are regularly moved to keep the land green. At eight weeks old the piglets are weaned and taken to green enclosures to forage. We provide around 12 pigs a week to our shop where the on site butchers make sausages, bacon and other cuts of meat. The Nature Trail starts in an animal paddock where you can feed the sheep and chickens and experience Guinea Pig Village, bee hives and three stream-fed ponds. It then takes you into the woodland with coppiced hazel and sweet chestnut and woodland pig enclosures. Large oaks and downy and silver birch grow on the top of the hill in the woods, indicative of the sandy soils present here and on the lower ground is an important area of classic wet woodland called Alder carr dominated by alder trees. The ‘Herb Garden’ is in a beautiful traditional walled garden with brick edged beds and gravel paths overlooking the pig enclosures. Herbs such as lemon balm, mint, lavender and thyme scent the air and provide good ‘scratch and sniff’ opportunities for visiting groups and in our Kitchen Garden, organically grown vegetables from tomatoes to French beans allow groups to experience vegetables growing naturally and to see first hand the beneficial effects of lashings of pig manure. The farm shop is a learning opportunity in itself. With high ethics, selling only local produce from small scale producers, you will find nothing for sale here that can be found in a supermarket. The aim is to reduce food miles and provide the shopper with everything needed to plan a good balanced diet. The butchery displays cuts of meat from different parts of the animal and sells pork, locally free range cattle, locally produced free range chicken and our own lamb FARM OVERVIEW Herb garden and vegetable garden: - Traditional brick edged formal herb and vegetable garden - Overgrown wilderness at first – brambles and nettles - Pigs helped to turn the soil and eat the weeds and roots and fertilise the ground - Now lots of herbs to smell – lemon balm, thyme, fennel, mint… and vegetables to identify Working farm: - New orchard, new pond - Breeding Essex Pigs we have bred – looking for good markings and good form- straight back, even walk … - Markings of Essex Pigs to recognise, history of Essex Pigs and why they are now classed as extinct. It will take 100 years to properly bring them back to a true breed - True breed: mating between Essex male and female always results in Essex offspring Farrowing areas: - Piglets are born all year round - Comparisons between farrowing enclosures in a non intensive and intensive farm- - Pigs are pregnant for 3months, three weeks and three days - It is a year from conception to slaughter - Piglets are weaned at 8 weeks here – 3 weeks in an intensive pig farm Financial implications: - we give our pigs lots more space than intensive pig farms, but we have to rent the land - our piglets are weaned at 8 weeks so our sows can only have 2 litters a year instead of 3 - Our pigs are sent to the abattoir at 6-9 months, (4months intensive farm) so we have to pay for their food for longer Radial system: - Where the boars and sows live - Makes for easy movement of boars and sows to breeding enclosures Breeds on the farm: - Berkshire, Saddleback and Tamworth - Differences in markings and shape and meat PIG FACTS: • Female pigs are sows, male pigs are boars. • All the pigs are rare breeds. At present there are wild boar, ¾ wild boar, Iron age, Tamworth, Large white, Middle white, British lop, Saddleback, Berkshire, Large black, Middle white cross, and Essex. • The aim on Jimmy’s Farm is to give pigs ‘a more natural life as they would have had 100 years ago using traditional farming methods’ • We have some organic standards but we are not classed as organic as standardised by the Soil Association. • Each pig has at least three times more space than the average pig on a farm. • Essex breed has a white tip to its nose, white tip to its tail, a white saddle and white back socks. • The Essex pig is special because it is rare and local to the area. • Most Essex Pigs were cross bred with Wessex to become Saddlebacks. • It is tricky to breed pure Essex Pigs because there is a small gene pool. • There are only five different Essex Pig families. We have stock from 4 of the families – Lady, Dictator and Gamma and Duchess. • Porridge is a Dictator Essex boar. He has won first prize adult male at a show. • It will take six years to breed pure Essex Pigs on Jimmy’s farm. • There were pigs in the woodland where they would eat grass, acorns, sweet chestnuts and worms and grubs in the soil. We are letting the woodland recover at the moment and the pigs are kept in green enclosures until next year. • Each sow has a pen 3m x 4.5m and they are rotated regularly around the pens. • Each litter will produce 6-15 piglets –average 10 • A sow is pregnant for 3months, 3 weeks and 3 days • Sows here have 2 litters a year, not 3 as in commercial pig farms • There are also rare breed chickens, sheep and cows on the farm • All the meat in the shop is prepared in the butchery here. It is all rare breed meat. • Other produce in the shop is to help support local producers. • Our meat is more expensive than meat from commercial farms because we give our pigs 3 times more space and we have to rent the land, our sows have 2 litters a year not 3 to let them recover, we wean our piglets at 8 weeks, not 3 weeks and we send our pigs to the abbetoir at 6-9 months not 4-5 months. |
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