About Us - The Homer Family, Wiltshire

Farm Background

David Homer and his girls

David and Jane farm in partnership on a specialist dairy farm with 180 cows on 280 acres growing grass, maize and a small area of wheat for home consumption. They are Crown Estate tenants and began farming in their own right 17 years ago, having moved from Warwickshire following David's father's retirement, who started the dairy herd over 50 years ago.

WildCare Involvement

David - who is also an elected representative for other local essential Waitrose farmers supplying their milk to Waitrose - comments on the WildCare Scheme.

"We are very happy to share the findings of the wildlife assessment carried out last November. Jane and I consider ourselves very lucky to farm in such beautiful surroundings, and are very pleased to have the observations on our farm confirmed through the independence of the WildCare wildlife assessment. Now that we have a full understanding of the bio-diverse habitats, we look forward to making further wildlife action plans - and not only improving the habitat for current species but improving the conservation management and attracting more species.

"Our farm is surrounded by dense woodland trees. The oak, beech, ash and sycamore predominate, but there are also areas of Old Scots pine and silver birch providing excellent habitat for a variety of birds including the buzzard and Red Kite. Much of the farm has open grassland that encourages the presence of Roe, Fallow and Muntjac deer. The hedgerows are rich in habitat - including the species hawthorn, blackthorn, oak, ash, dogwood, spindle and holly. Sharing the measured 14.5% wildlife habitat are some rarer species, barn owls, brown hares, song thrush, lapwing and skylark, in addition to more common ones like badger, blue tit, chaffinch, great tit, sparrow, blackbird, robin and pied wagtail. We are pleased to be able to share much of this through the network of footpaths and bridleways on our farm."