About Clinks Care Farm
Clinks Farm is a 143 acre Norfolk County Farm in Toft Monks. The farm sits on the border of Suffolk and Norfolk, not far from Beccles, and combines the care of the land with the care of people.
Clinks Care Farm is a social enterprise, and was started in 2010 to offer placements to disadvantaged people to use the natural farm environment and the activities on the farm as a therapeutic space and a place to learn and grow.
Our Farm Animals
We keep a good variety and number of animals on the farm, which enable our farm helpers to learn animal husbandry skills. Most of our animals produce food, such as eggs, pork and lamb, which we prepare for the local market.
Our pigs, which are a cross bred Saddleback, Hampshire and Large Black live in large outdoor pens. We also keep sheep which are a cross bred Jacob and Southdown. Hector our ram is put with our ewes every autumn. This means we are usually very busy at lambing time and have many new arrivals.
Our Goldline chickens are excellent layers and the eggs are popular with customers. Clinks Care Farm have geese and ducks keeping us all entertained. We often have around a dozen calves overwintering in our barn too.
Managing the Farm
We adopt a holistic approach to manage our challenging clay soil, working with nature to build soil fertility by adding organic matter (muck), rotating crops, using green manures and minimising artificial inputs.
Crops are grown in poly-tunnels, raised beds and various areas of market garden space. Production is focused to supply our Food Box Scheme which operates from June through to December.
In 2011, Clinks Care Farm entered a 10 year Natural England agreement to develop and manage ELS and HLS options on the farm. Volunteers and farm helpers from Clinks Care Farm helped with creating a new orchard by planting 115 fruit trees, and children from Glebeland Primary School in Toft Monks helped to plant two new woodlands by planting 1,600 native woodland trees and 2,000 hedging plants.
We also regenerated 3 farm ponds and constructed nearly 2,000 meters of stock fencing. Field margins were created around our arable fields, all with the aim to create new wildlife habitats for all the farm creatures which include insects, birds and hares.
Our Local Community
Clinks Care Farm Ltd is a social enterprise and any profits made will be put back into the farm to benefit those coming to the farm and our rural community. We are always keen to work in partnership with the local community and help wherever we can.
- Offering placements to vulnerable local people at the care farm
- Providing fresh local produce
donating surplus produce to people in need - Providing a grounds maintenance service to local parishes at a reasonable cost
- Supporting local businesses by buying supplies locally
- Opening the farm to the public on regular occasions (see events page for details)
- Holding an annual ceilidh at the farm (see events page for details)
- Allow school visits to the farm and youth groups to participate in activities on the farm
