Trying to start a silvopastured poultry operation on 3 ha in Rønnebæk, Denmark 🇩🇰

After traveling around Europe for 10months to learn from regenerative farms 🇪🇺

Wanna see the notes and documentation for GOK nok Farm? It’s here:

Poultry Preparations

🗓️ Sep 26th 2024 📍 Næstved 🇩🇰 

Recent Highlights:

• Finding the right dual purpose chicken breed(s) locally available at this time of year is not as easy as we had hoped
• Same with finding cherry and pawpaw trees of the kind we are looking for, very pricey
• Have gotten started on the Eggmobile, using a repurposed old (and pretty beaten) horse trailer
• Considering to wait until Spring to get the chickens on-site, even though we really want to get started
• Planning a few tree-planting sessions in October and November
• Getting contacted by people my network to buy a lot of pastured eggs, but I actually can’t find enough producers to fill the demand…
• Among other places, went to visit local chicken breeder Noam, found amazing egg varieties but not really the dualpurpose breeds we’re looking for

Meanwhile, in the office…

• Helping to navigate the financial situation as a UK dairy farm is going through a lot of changes
• Time to go back into financial janitor mode for a longterm client, now that ‘the storm’ is passing
• Digging back into the record keeping to ensure an easy and QUICK Cash Flow projection and follow up process with actuals, which means we need to update account codes and categories
• Going through two separate Farm Sharing (Joint Venture) processes and seeing a lot of overlap and initial interest
• Plotting to test out a dedicated Matching service between Landowners and Landseekers within regenerative agriculture and the associated processing steps (both upstream and downstream).
• Long term vision is still to establish something like a “Precious Plastic” for Regenerative Agriculture
• The road to getting there is likely long and the Matching service/platform could be a good first step in that direction

Curious? Check out

The farm tour (Aug ‘23 - June ‘24)

Notes and learnings from 10 months working on regenerative farms around Europe 🇪🇺

Highlights

• Doing an autopsy of a sheep found dead in the electric netting 👨🏼‍⚕️🔪🐑
• Detecting parasite pressure in the sheep & goat herd on a microscope 🔬
• Almost confused my cup of coffee with a cup of squeezed poop-soup to be analysed
• The amazing story of ‘petit douve’ - a parasite with remarkable lifecycle through 3 different hosts incl. zombie ants 🔄
• Making a zinksulphate footbath setup by the drinking-trough to treat foot-rot in a goat/sheep herd 💡
• Exploring the opportunities to raise a type of poultry that one needs to literally shoot in the face (or stab with a spear) to collect for butchering.
• ❗Returning to Denmark after 10 months on the road and deciding to start a silvopastured poultry operation 🌳🐓🥚

Changed my way of marking time in this farm log, because who really cares about week numbers anyway?

Week 4-6

🏃🏼OFF to Copenhagen and Berlin for running marathons and visiting Saba’s farm (Sweden)

List of Farms

Only the longer farm stays ❗

1st Farm: Planton Farm 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

Clare and Rupert Hill 📍 Shropshire, United Kingdom

🔗 https://plantonfarm.co.uk/

• 80 acres of pasture, old orchards, perennial market garden and upcoming forrest garden
• Enterprises: Eggs, Chicken meat, Pork, Beef, Vegetables, herbs, tree nursery
• Bonus: Educational function with Regenerative farm accelerator

Arrival Monday Aug 21st, 2023

Departure Sunday Oct 8th, 2023

2nd Farm: Terra May 🇵🇹

Anna & David De Brito Family 📍Alentejo, Portugal

🔗 https://terramay.com

• 580 hectares of hilly silvopastures, agroforestry, animal husbandry, market garden and a stunning lakeview
• Enterprises: Beef, Pork (pata negra), Eggs, vegetable boxes, herbs, goat cheese, sheep
• Production kitchen with delicious preserved, picked and fermented farm products
• Farm restaurant
• Bonus: Upcoming Hospitality enterprise + a volunteer camp

Arrival Monday Nov 2nd, 2023

Departure Jan 6th, 2024

3rd Farm: Finca Pajaretillo 🇪🇸

Manuel Troya and Family 📍Jerez, Andalusia, Spain

🔗 https://agrotagarnina.mystrikingly.com/

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1gpQip9AW0

• 475 hilly hectares at the foot of the Cadiz Sierra, purely pastures and woodland
• Enterprises: Beef & Honey
• Plan to add Slaughterhouse, chicken enterprise and educational facilities

Arrival Monday Jan 15th, 2024

Departure Sunday April 7th, 2024

4th Farm: Ferme de les Côteaux 🇫🇷

Monique and Frank Glorie 📍Le Fossat, Ariège (FR)

• 80ha of hilly pastures, silvopastures and woodlands
• Enterprises: Lamb, Sheep/goat breeding, fencing poles, caravan rentals
• Chicken flock for personal egg consumption roaming more or less freely around the property
• Upcoming: Glamping site(s) + gineafowl (+ bigger chicken enterprise if they find a share-farming partner)

Arrival Wednesday April 10th, 2024

Departure Friday June 7th, 2024