Some 40 children and volunteers from Surrey Docks Farm visited Kelly Turkeys near Chelmsford on 31 July. Founder Derek Kelly and son Paul showed us round the award-winning farm.
Paul Kelly explains incubation
Poults ready for despatch
We saw the hatchery first, where the children were spellbound by seeing the scale of the operation and the little day-old poults being despatched all over the UK.
Outside, we saw Derek’s prime Angus cattle – his real love! After a picnic lunch we moved to one of the Kellys’ nearby rearing farms where we saw ‘Wild Forest Turkey’ production.
The turkeys have full access to the forest floor and were very obliging with their gobbles. Paul staged a gobbling competition, won by young Sam, who gets a free Christmas turkey!
The children’s enthusiastic reaction to this visit amply demonstrated the value of connecting children with the source of their food. Our thanks to the Kelly family, to Gemma and team from Surrey Docks and to PM Richard Whitlock for organising a great day.
The group with the forest turkeys
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