Our smallholding is home to a range of different livestock. We keep sheep, goats and chickens all year round with extra livestock, including pigs and turkeys, during the summer and autumn.
Our animal project has five aims:
- Demonstrate best practice in farm animal welfare
- Tell the story of food and farming
- Enable connections with animals and nature
- Celebrate and promote community
- Love our farm site
The Farm's smallholding is situated opposite the award-winning City Farm Cafe, the adventure playground and the Community Building.
We're open to the general public 7 DAYS A WEEK from 9AM - 4PM (usually a bit later in summer). The City Farm is free to visit and welcomes more than 40,000 visitors each year.
Your donations enable us to offer targeted activities for those at most need within our communities and to maintain green spaces for farm animals and wildlife accessible to all.
Meet the animals
The Farm is very small, usually taking less than an hour to wander around but please do sit and stay for longer.
Our animals change throughout the seasons but we’ve always got at least a handful of animal faces to say hello to. Please do buy a cup of grass pellets to feed the goats and sheep but do not offer them anything else to eat including leaves, grass etc.
Our nanny goats give birth every spring if all goes to plan. Once the kids are grown enough to do without, we start milking demonstrations every morning. Our volunteers learn hand milking and the pigs eat the milk once soaked into their food. Goat meat is popular in our local community.
Some of our beneficiaries form good relationships with goats, so we now keep a companion goat for these therapeutic interactions.
Our sheep come from other local farms as lambs and they keep the grass in the paddocks short. Shearing in early summer keeps them cool and free from insect infestation plus their wool has many uses, from felt craft to keeping slugs off the veggies. We occasionally have mutton for sale, our farmer’s favourite meat.
Our pig sty gets very muddy over winter so we buy young pigs to grow on the farm from spring until autumn. Our butcher makes exceptional pork sausages that are highly praised by the locals.
We keep rare British chickens including brown-ish Speckled Sussex and all white Ixworth. Our hens lay beautiful cream coloured eggs that we sell or use in our cooking groups.
Our logo is a proud cockerel so we always have at least one complete flock of chickens that can produce fertile eggs (and we love the loud noises he makes!). We often work with local schools to hatch in the classroom before the chicks grow up on the farm into either young hens to lay more eggs or cockerels that end up as stew or curry.
We enjoy raising a small posse of turkeys to sell for Christmas.
Sorry, but we haven’t enough space for every kind of farm animal, so have no ducks (or cattle, or ponies/donkeys).
Staying Safe on the Farm
Visiting a farm can be enjoyable for everyone. But such visits can never be free from all risks. All animals can potentially carry infections that can be harmful to people, particularly children under 5 and pregnant women.
The bacterial infection known as E.coli is a particular risk, and you will see our signs and posters around the farm reminding you to wash your hands in one of our three hand washing stations as you leave the farm.
Please always wash your hands thoroughly with the soap and warm water provided. Do not use your own gels or wipes as these products do not remove E.coli.
