Court Lodge Farm is a mixed organic farm in East Sussex owned by David and Marian Harding. Part of the farm is on the Pevensey Levels, an area renowned for its wildlife, and the remainder is on the adjacent hill. We have a dairy herd of about 140 cows; mostly black and white holstein friesian cows, together with a few ‘red’ and white Ayrshire cows. The ayrshires were bought as young animals when a neighbour retired, but otherwise we are a ‘closed herd’, breeding all the replacements for the herd.

We also grow some organic crops, mostly for feeding to the cows. The cropping varies from year to year but usually includes wheat, barley and peas., which are rotated round the drier part of the farm together with grass and red clover for fixing nitrogen. The dairy herd is managed with animal welfare as a priority and during the grazing season the cows are out on organic pastures, and most spend their 8 week 'dry’ period having a summer holiday on the Pevensey Levels nature reserve owned by the Sussex Wildlife Trust. In winter when the ground is waterlogged and the grass stops growing, they are housed in large airy strawed barns and fed on silage and hay.