Our next Ask the Farmer Q&A ‘A Productive Mixed Stock Farm Working with Nature’, as part of our Farming for Nature Ambassador Series is with Mixed Organic Farmer Penn Saugnier
This live Q&A with the Farming for Nature project Manager Brigid Barry takes place on Tuesday, August 13 at 8pm.
Pen Saugnier and her mother Diana Pickersgill run a mixed organic farm with the help of other family members, near Mullingar Co. Westmeath. There is 40 acres of multispecies sward and about 8ha of mixed broadleaf woodland on the farm which is operated under a continuous cover forestry system. They have 28 acres of tillage with cover crops and tillage crops. As advocates for the importance of maintaining diversity on farms, they keep a variety of stock on the land but maintain low stocking numbers. They keep Dexter cattle, sheep, sows, donkeys and chickens. There is also a kitchen garden on the farm and oats are grown to supplement winter feedback and provide straw for bedding. Habitats on the farm include woodlands, hedgerows, wetland areas with 2 ponds, and orchard, meadows and wildflower areas.
Register here for the Q &A –
