Ardensawah is a busy working farm with dairy and beef cattle, rare beed pigs, ducks and chickens.
The dairy herd is milked twice a day and the milk is collected and taken to be made into Rodda’s Cornish Clotted Cream. We also rear calves for beef to sell at market and female calves to grow on for the milking herd.
We farm three farms in a row – Trendrennen Farm, Raftra Farm and Ardensawah Farm which provides about 700 acres of productive land. During the farming year we sow wheat and barley which is harvested during the summer months, maize and silage grass for the cattle food which is harvested between May and September. Cauliflowers are planted during the summer and harvested all winter between November and March and are sold to the large supermarkets. Potatoes are planted during January till March and are special potatoes with a certain ‘dry matter level’ to produce the excellent McCoys crisps. We produce about 3000 tons of potatoes to produce those crisps.
We also manage about 150 acres of cliffland here at Ardensawah. We work in partnership with Natural England and the RSPB to manage the cliffland by top grazing and scrub management. We put a small amount of cattle on the cliff, they produce dung which in turn encourages flies and insects such as dung beetles and ants. These are then able to reproduce and provide an excellent area rich in food to encourage the Cornish chough which until very recently had been almost extinct in Britain. During the summer of 2008 we saw at least 2 pairs of choughs on the cliff area straight out from the farmhouse so if you love birds and their natural habitat this is the place to come. Porthgwarra is also the main migratory path for migrating birds and many unusual species can be seen in this area.
