Island Life Magazine Ltd August/September 2010 | Page 150

food

Island Life - August/September 2010

Born, bred and fed on
the Isle of Wight
Since Matt Bowman, owner of the Stone
Ground Flour Company, introduced chickens
on to his Little Duxmore Farm at Havenstreet,
things have really been going round in circles
– and he is delighted with the outcome.
Matt became the mill owner 15 years ago,
and took charge of the farm six years ago.
But he finally had to concede that organic
arable-only farming was virtually impossible
to sustain.
“It can be done with a farm that has
thousands of acres, but not on a smaller
scale,” he said. “We only have 107 acres, of
which 19 are woodland and the rest arable,
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with just one 10-acre field non-organic.”
So Matt decided to introduce chickens to
his farm to begin a egg production business.
And in a roundabout way it has worked
extremely well for him. He explained: “We
have 1,800 eggs, and produce some 11,500
eggs each week.
“For the first time this year I have planted
crops in the field where the chickens have
been and the results are looking very good.
Naturally the chickens have provided the
manure and I am quite excited about the
quality and the amount of grain that is being
produced, you can definitely see the benefits.
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