Our animals

Every morning after breakfast, we feed our animals with the help of our small visitors. The very favourite activity is always feeding the chickens, ducks, geese and guinea fowl and collecting the eggs. Even our tiniest guests love our poultry and are brave enough to throw a handful of corn!

Our feeding round also includes our four pigs, Mary and Daffodil, who are Gloucester Old Spots and Mandy and Joyful who are British Saddlebacks. You’ll also be introduced to an assortment of orphan lambs (all desperate for their bottles of milk!) and our two pygmy goats, Hopscotch and Hester.

We also visit our ponies, and twice a week, weather permitting, there is a chance to groom and ride them. Farmer Andrew (as he has now become known!) is a beef farmer when not helping with breakfast and feeding our farm menagerie. He is happy to take you to see his herd and to tell you about the history of farming at Higher Lank. The farm has been in his family for three generations and our diversification has enabled our traditional and non-intensive farm practices to remain viable.

Our herd comprises mainly Limosin/South Devon crosses, which are bred on the farm and then sold to other local farmers for finishing. All the beef you eat when staying with us is our own and we are beginning to finish more stock ourselves, with a view to offering it to our visitors to purchase at the end of their stay, or by mail order, so watch this space!!

Depending on the time of your visit, we will also be hatching and rearing chicks, ducklings and goslings and tending to piglets, or orphan calves.

All these experiences are ones your children will remember and talk about long after your holiday is over.

As our animals are reared from infancy on the farm, they are all very children friendly, and are always pleased to see visitors. You are able to return and visit them at any time during the day. Many visiting children refuse to go to bed until they have been round to say goodnight!

All of Higher Lank Farm is NO SMOKING and so child friendly