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Free entry to the animals & play area
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FARM SHOP- ALL DAY FAMILY
RESTAURANT- FARM ACTIVITIES
Carruan is our livestock farm just
out of Polzeath. The atmosphere is relaxed, the views are
spectacular and the food tasty, homemade and local.
We'd love to see you.
Mike & Clare Parnell |
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If you are unable
to join us for a tractor & trailer tour around the farm, watch
this video.
CLICK HERE TO VIEW |
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Bistro & Specials Nights
Fridays
& Saturdays throughout June.
Good
food in a friendly & relaxed atmosphere. |
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Have you ever wondered where the food you eat comes from, or how
it is produced? Our aim at Carruan is to show you how we farm, and
how we care for our livestock and the countryside around us. If you
can�t visit us and you have any questions about the farm you might
find the answers on our
farming Calendar or
farm diary. If not, just post your questions in our
question & answer section and we�ll do our best to answer them.
The farm offers something for all the family, with tours around
the farm on the tractor & trailer, the play area and the farmyard
animals to get to know. Try the home-cooked food in our licensed
farmhouse kitchen. Buy meat produced on the farm as well as
dairy products and vegetables from other local farms, wine & local
beer & cider in
our shop & if you aren�t able to visit us we can deliver fresh
beef & lamb direct to
your door by courier.
And when you leave the beach, come and join us for a family BBQ or
farmhouse supper with storytellers, singers, children�s games, sheep
racing or birds of prey handling to
round off the day.
We open at 8.00 am and stay open until 8.30 pm (times may vary out
of season), so pop-in whenever you�re passing. Entry is free.
Carruan is a working farm, so there�s always something going on.
Mike & Clare Parnell |
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Visit
Carruan
Who Farms Carruan
Farming at Carruan
Sheep
Dogs
Cattle
Crops
The Environment
Carruan History |
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- Experience farming and food production
first hand
- Help us feed the lambs
- Take a tour around the farm on the
tractor and trailer
- Come for a family BBQ with
storytellers, music or games
- Enjoy the local food & relaxed
atmosphere in the
farmhouse kitchen. Breakfasts, light lunches, cream teas,
homemade cakes, BBQs
- Buy our own meat & other local produce
in the
farm shop plus gifts, wine 7 local beer & cider.
- Have fresh beef & lamb
delivered to your door by courier
- Watch the sheep dogs bringing in the
sheep
- Meet the farm animals
- Bring your
school or playgroup
- Hold a
party or event here.
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Mike & Clare farm a total of 350 acres. This includes Carruan which
is owned by Clare�s parents, Norah and Tony White who live in the
farmhouse.
They bought the farm in the 1960�s and moved there in 1966 when Tony
White sold his veterinary practice in Plymouth. His family farm was
Cutliffe, just outside Taunton in Somerset, but this was sold when
his father retired.
Clare has lived on the farm since she was seven, and apart from
periods away travelling and at University has worked on the farm all
her life. Mike was born and bred at Pityme, near Rock but until 12
years ago worked as a Bosun in the Merchant Navy before deciding to
go farming.
Mike & Clare work the farm together with Clare�s father and nephew
Philip Kent. Philip is the third generation farming at Carruan.
Clare�s father has a wealth of experience about the farm and what
grows well, and its very useful having a retired vet as part of the
team!
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Mike & Clare farm a total of 350 acres this
includes Carruan and Treswarrow Park where Mike & Clare live. Some
additional land close by is rented. The main enterprises are sheep
and beef and enough arable crops to provide their winter feed and
bedding.
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The sheep flock has 950 ewes all of the same
breed � Poll Dorset. �Poll� means that they don�t have horns. One of
the main characteristics of the
Dorset Horn and Poll Dorset breed is their ability to breed at
any time of the year. This is important to because Mike & Clare lamb
most of the flock in November and the remainder in February. In
Cornwall and the wider South West, farmers with Poll Dorset & Dorset
Horn sheep can lamb their ewes in the autumn because of the very
mild climate and long grass growing season. This means they can
produce lambs ahead of the rest of the country. Waitrose appreciate
this and sell their product as �Dorset Lamb� on the butchery
counters of many of their stores from February through to May. Mike
and Clare are part of their Dorset Lamb group, made up of selected
farmers who supply Dorset lamb and meet their exacting quality
standards.
www.waitrose.com To find out more see the
farming calendar,
farm diary or
ask us.
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We wouldn�t be able to manage all the sheep we have without the help
of our working sheepdogs who you can meet when you visit the farm.
You can see them working the sheep or being trained by Clare as
well. Jim is the oldest at 13. He prefers to work from the back of
the quad bike now and leaves the others to do most of the work. He
still likes to help, but only when he feels like it!
Jo is eight years old and never wants to stop working. In fact Clare
has to keep a firm eye on him to make sure he doesn�t push the sheep
too fast.
Jack is Jim�s son and at 3 years old is still learning the job. But
he�s very steady and coming on well. He still
gets his left and right confused sometimes!
Max is the latest addition � born in February 2006. He is unusual
because he is chocolate brown and white instead of the more normal
black and white. All he does so far is chew things up and annoy the
other dogs! Ben does no work at all � he is our Labrador.
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Mike and Clare have a herd of 25 beef suckler cows. �Suckler�
meaning that the calves stay with their mothers from birth in March
and April suckling them through to weaning in late October. Both the
cows and their weaned calves come into the cattle shed in late
October for the winter. Last year�s calves, now called yearlings go
out in the Spring and have a second summer at grass. The cows calve
in the shed and then go out with their new calves when they are a
few days old, weather permitting. To find out more see the
farming calendar,
farm diary or
ask us.
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Mike and Clare grow 40 acres of barley and
oats to feed to the sheep and cattle in the winter. Some of this is
planted in the Autumn for harvest in late July, and some planted in
the Spring for harvest in August. The grain is fed to the sheep and
cattle mixed with some extra protein that is bought in, and the
straw is used as bedding when they are housed in the winter. The
protein is always bought in from GM free (genetically modified)
sources.
They also grow 20 acres of forage crops to feed the sheep in the
winter. These are green crops such as kale, stubble turnips and
forage rape.
In the Spring they take the livestock off some of the grass fields
in order to grow crops of grass that are harvested to provide extra
feed in the winter. They make hay, which is dried grass, and silage
which is �pickled� grass. Silage is made by wrapping the grass in
plastic, making an airtight parcel so that acidic conditions are
produced, ideal for the bacteria which pickle the crop. To find out
more see the
farming calendar,
farm diary or
ask us.
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Carruan is part of a scheme called
Countryside Stewardship which encourages Mike & Clare to continue to
farm in an environmentally friendly way. Through this they work with
RSPB
to provide additional habitats for Corn Buntings which have been in
severe decline over recent years. Corn Buntings are open country
birds which nest in arable farmland. The farm provides them with a
field planted with spring barley and millet in which to nest and, to
ensure that they are not disturbed, the crop is not harvested. In
addition once other cereal crops have been harvested the stubble is
left in at least one field over the winter together with all the
stubble from the forage crops to provide winter feed for birds.
Under the Countryside Stewardship scheme many of the traditional
stone-faced hedgebanks on the farm are being repaired. These provide
important habitats for both plants and animals and are used as
wildlife corridors by wild mammals.
DEFRA
The farm is a member of
FWAG (Farming & Wildlife Advisory Group) & Mike & Clare are
delighted to have won the 2007 Cornwall Otter Trophy awarded by FWAG
for their conservation work linked to good commercial farming.
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Unfortunately Mike & Clare�s knowledge of the history of Carruan is
very sketchy, in fact all they know is that:
In 1200 Carruan was spelt CAREWEN which means Ewen�s fort, Ewen
being an old Celtic personal name. The Cornish word CAR means fort,
usually a Cornish Round. Rounds were the type of dwelling used in
Cornwall from the late iron age and roman periods. A recent aerial
photograph of one of the fields on Carruan indicates the presence of
rounds. RUAN was a Cornish saint. They would like to know more and
are hoping that a school group might like to investigate for them
click here for more information about
school visits.
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