NIGEL AKEHURST VISITS: J A KEEN & SON
FARMING
AND CAMPING
18
Arriving at Etherley Farm via a concrete farm track off Leith Hill Lane, I notice the busy campsite to my right, with a mixture of tents and camper vans dotted around the field. To my left I spot a flock of geese grazing in a paddock next to the farmhouse. I park up and head for the farmyard, navigating my way through a cluster of old and modern buildings and past a cold room to find the poultry processing unit, where I meet Charlie Keen wearing a butcher’s apron. She tells me they have just finished eviscerating (disembowelling) their latest batch of chickens on a small processing line. It’s an impressive looking operation, all housed in a collection of old farm buildings that were once used for dairying. Richard turns up and they give me a quick tour, starting with the lairage where the birds are housed before they are slaughtered. The room has blackout blinds which helps keep them calm,
explained Charlie. The birds are put on a line and stunned in an electric water bath before being processed on a series of machines operated by skilled workers. The birds are dipped in paraffin wax to aid dry plucking, a desirable but far more labour-intensive method compared to the wet plucking used by the larger scale poultry processors. The end product is finished by hand and well worth the extra effort. “We rear all our poultry on a free-range system, slaughtering and processing them on site,” said Charlie. It is a free-range system with Hubbard birds. “It takes around 12 weeks to rear from day old chicks before they are ready,” explained Richard. “This compares to around 42 days or fewer for most modern broiler units that supply supermarkets under the Red Tractor scheme.” The Hubbard variety of broiler was chosen as it suits the outdoor system; once they are old
OCTOBER 2021 | WWW.SOUTHEASTFARMER.NET
This month Nigel Akehurst visits small-scale poultry farmers J A Keen & Son at Etherley Farm, a 165-acre National Trust tenanted farm situated at the foot of Leith Hill, an area of outstanding natural beauty. Husband and wife team Richard and Charlie Keen, together with Richard’s daughter Amy and her husband Phil, run a highly diversified mixed livestock farm and campsite business. enough to be let out of the sheds they tend to roam more than other more commercial birds like the Ross. However, at Etherley Farm they do still buy in some Ross to get some different weights for Christmas. The poultry enterprise operates under the small-scale supplier class, slaughtering fewer than 10,000 birds per year, meaning they don’t need a vet on site (though they do still have inspections). The vast majority of their poultry is sold direct from their farm shop or to local butchers.
