Moat Farm, run by Antony Pearce, is a mixed farm in Stoke Mandeville, on the edge of Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire. Mixed farming is a type of farming which involves both the growing of crops and the raising of livestock.
As well as rearing turkeys, the farm has 360 hectares (900 acres) of arable land which is mainly used to grow wheat for Weetabix® breakfast cereal, milling wheat for Warburtons® bread, barley for Budweiser® lager and gluten-free oats for Glebe Farm.
In the 1950’s, Antony’s late grandmother Eva, who reared chickens, identified an increasing demand for local turkeys at Christmas and also understood the benefits of running a turkey enterprise on a mainly arable farm where much of the usual work is done in the summer months. The Pearce Family has been rearing turkeys ever since. Antony’s mother Janet jokes that he (a December arrival) was ‘born in the turkey shed!’