Welcome to Roves Farm. We are a family owned, working farm open to the public all year round. Roves Farm covers 166 hectares (nearly 400 acres) just 3 miles east of Swindon, on the Wiltshire and Oxfordshire border. The visitor centre opened in 1992 to welcome people of all ages to come and experience and learn about animals, farming and the countryside.
Aside from our visitor centre, Roves Farm has remained a working farm. Over the past several years it has undergone some significant changes and is now predominantly a livestock farm; our commercial sheep flocks, pigs and cow herds have grown significantly as we look to supply our farm shop, opened in 2017, with high quality meat produce year-round. We currently run a commercial flock of 300 Poll Dorset and Suffolk cross breeding ewes, 20 Gloucester Old Spot breeding sows, producing over 350+ piglets a year, and a herd of 40 breeding Sussex cows.
In the past arable land has been planted to crops such as wheat, barley, oats and beans. Much of this land has now been put down to pasture to feed and house our growing numbers of livestock. A proportion of the arable land also now houses a solar farm, a source of renewable energy, where our sheep and hens graze the grass beneath the panels. Short rotation willow coppice has been harvested and stored to provide wood chip to fuel our biomass boilers, which heat the visitor centre during the colder months.
Flower rich meadows and grass field margins, hedgerows, woodlands, wild bird covers and watercourses are a haven for a diverse array of wildlife living and feeding on the farm. You might be lucky enough to see deer, foxes, squirrels, pheasants, birds of prey and many more on our tractor rides around the farm.
Our sheep graze the fields at Roves Farm, as well as under solar panels and on neighbouring farmland. Breeds of ram used to tup the ewes are chosen carefully to ensure the best quality meat product. Lambing takes place in January and April each year in the barns. The smaller Poll Dorset flock lamb in January, and the main Suffolk cross breeding ewes lamb in April. Lambing in January, early in the season, means that we have a year-round supply of meat for the Farm Shop.
Our Gloucester Old Spot pigs are a traditional rare breed pig chosen for the finest quality cuts of pork. We currently have 20 breeding sows and two boars, producing 350-400 piglets each year. Born on the farm and reared mostly outdoors, they are happy, slow grown pigs reared in a stress-free environment.
Our Sussex herd calve in Autumn and Spring. Being a traditional breed, they thrive on grassland and require very little extra feed. The Sussex herd come into the barns for winter and are fed on home grown silage and extra feed during this time.
As well as our commercial livestock we have many friendly pet farm animals who enjoy lots of attention from our visitors. They are housed in the animal barns and paddocks around the centre where people can get up close and hands on with them in a variety of animal handling and feeding activities.