Hemsby MegaMaze is owned by farmer Richard Hirst.
Richard farms 350 hectares at Hemsby and Ormesby. It’s a mixed farm which means he has arable crops and livestock. Many of the crops Richard grows end up on your plate. Take a look…
Wheat grown for bread making. If the quality is good enough it should be used by Warburton’s.
Barley is used for making malt which is one of the ingredients of beer. Some of the barley is used to brew English Bitter. It is also used as animal feed for cattle, pigs, sheep and chickens
Sugar Beet grown on the farm is sent to British Sugar and made into Silver Spoon sugar. Some of the crop may also be used for making bio-fuel.
Peas harvested at the farm are sold into supermarket own-label bags. One of our customers, Ardo UK, freezes more than 530,000 tonnes of vegetables and fruit all over Europe.
Salad Crops grown on the farm include Iceberg lettuce, Little Gem lettuce and many speciality crops which have many different coloured leaves. We grow celery, too!
Potatoes on the farm are used to make Walkers crisps. The varieties we grow are deliberately chosen to make sure the potatoes are very white.
Richard also has livestock on the farm which include:
A herd of Red Poll suckler cows. Red Poll is on the rare breed at-risk register and these are kept to help graze some of the areas on the farm that are in environmental protection. One day it is hoped Richard will serve beef burgers from his own animals.
There is a livery yard on the farm providing stables and grazing for horses. In the 1950s Richard’s father used horses on the farm before tractors were widely-used.
Some areas of the farm is sown with grasses and flowers to create homes for insects and wildlife. Richard is a member of Leaf (Linking the Environment And Farming) which promotes the ideas of intensive farming whilst caring for the environment.
Some of the farm has been converted into organic farming which is where no chemicals or fertilisers are put on the crops.
