Paul Edworthy POULTRY FARMER - THE DARTMOOR POULTRY COMPANY

How did you become a poultry farmer?

I started rearing poultry for Christmas 15 years ago with just two geese and five turkeys. The Dartmoor Poultry Company has been trading since 2016 and is now a family run business, based in the heart of Dartmoor. We wanted to produce turkeys and geese at the same price, and give families the choice of affordable quality meat at one of the most expensive times of year.

How much training is involved, what qualifications do you need to become a poultry farmer?

As with most farming, you learn how to poultry farm from your elders. You don't need qualifications to become a poultry farmer. However, you do need a slaughter licence and premises approved by Environmental Health.

What is involved in being a poultry farmer?

In April, we buy our goslings as day-olds from Newland Farm Geese in Tiverton and then in June we get day-old turkeys from Kelly Bronze Turkeys in Essex. We then rear them to full maturity, giving us full control on the end-flavour of the birds. We buy mainly small strain hen birds to produce small turkeys with more breast meat than large strain birds. We feed the birds on natural diets of cereals and clover rich pastures. I am a fully licenced slaughter man so we process all the birds on the farm, hang them for 14 days for full flavour, and then prepare them to sell as oven-ready poultry.

How has your business changed over the years?

Growing the online business and courier service has meant that we can now deliver nationwide as well as locally. We have perfected a cool bag system to keep the turkeys at the correct temperature during transport and our courier service delivers them to homes two days before Christmas Day. We did some trial runs to London and Cambridge last year with perfect results. This year we are also producing turkeys for Thanksgiving.

What would you say to someone thinking of this as a career?

It is apparent that with any sector of the farming industry, you need to produce on a large scale in order to make a decent turnover. On the scale that we are farming, it really is something that is more of a lifestyle choice.

What is the best thing about your job?

Job satisfaction is having day-old chicks arrive at the farm and seeing them go through the whole process, reared to a high welfare standard and getting great customer feedback in the new year; it makes it all worthwhile. I also enjoy having input from family members across four generations.

For more information or to contact us, please visit www.dartmoorpoultrycompany.co.uk or The Dartmoor Poultry Company Facebook page.