Pheasants Hill Farm supplies Quick frozen grass fed pasture raised meat for customers with histamine intolerance, or for customers eating a Paleo, G.A.P.S diet or following the Autoimmune Protocol.

We have been producing free range pigs at Pheasants Hill Farm since 1997. Farming started as a hobby, with one Tamworth pig, and the hobby became a business in response to requests from local people who saw the pigs in the fields, and wanted to buy free range pork. Soon we added free range chickens, turkeys and geese for Christmas and later we added our own farm shop and butchery, and started to produce our dry cured bacon from Pheasants Hill Tamworth and Old Spots Pork. Since that time the business has grown to the year-round production of free range pork, bacon, hams, smoked hams, lamb and eggs, free range chickens, turkeys, geese, ducks, wild venison in season and home-made small batch preserves made from our own fruit and vegetables.

At Pheasants Hill Farm we produce our own rare breed of free-range pork, bacon, hams, rare breed lamb and free range eggs. In addition, we butcher and supply local grass fed traditional Irish breeds of beef, lamb, venison and poultry suited to the Northern Ireland environment.

Pheasants’ Hill Farm specialises in rearing and also supplying the old, and now rare, breeds of farm livestock – Dexter, Irish Moiled and Beef Shorthorn cattle, Southdown and Hebridean sheep, Tamworth and Gloucester Old Spots pigs and Dorking hens.

The traditional native breeds of cattle in which we specialise are relatively slow to mature, reaching their killing weight between 24 and 36 months.

These native Irish beef cattle breeds of Irish Moiled and Dexter are hardy, and can stand out in our Irish climate all year round. Their diet is made up exclusively of grass for 12 months of the year, if the farm land can stand the tramping of the cattle in the winter.

Our free range chickens, geese, bronze turkeys, white turkeys and ducks are reared in small free range outdoor flocks on the shores of Strangford Lough. They enjoy access to 160 acres of lush pasture. The chickens are slowly reared and kept for 16 weeks (compare this to the six week life of an average supermarket bird).

Grass fed beef
The traditional Irish and British breeds of cattle, in which we specialise, are relatively slow to mature, reaching their killing weight between 24 and 36 months.

Traditional beef cattle breeds are hardy, and can stand out in our Irish climate all year round. Their diet is made up exclusively of grass for 12 months of the year, if the farm land can stand the tramping of the cattle in the winter. Some of our suppliers farm on damp, clay soil and the pasture is spoilt by ‘poaching’ if the cattle stand out in the Northern Ireland winter, and so in the four months of winter they are housed and fed on silage or sugar beet pulp or a maximum of four pounds of grain per day.

Apart from being wormed, the cattle we use are not treated medicinally unless they are ill. They are not injected with antibiotics as a preventative, nor are they given extra hormones or probiotics.

Free range bronze turkeys
There’s nothing as good as a slow-grown, proper free-range bronze turkey. This is a traditional slow-growing breed which flourishes outdoors on rich County Down grass. The turkey chicks are brought in as two-day old chicks in late spring. We keep them inside in the warm for first three weeks in a barn as they grow feathers to protect them and keep them warm outdoors. Once the chicks have grown feathers they are moved to outside pasture where they spend the summer in the mild climate beside Strangford Lough. They spend their days grazing on grass and show the natural behaviour of a woodland birds.

Free range farming
At Pheasants Hill Farm we produce our own rare breed free-range pork, bacon, hams, rare breed lamb and free range eggs. In addition we butcher and supply local grass fed traditional Irish breeds of beef, lamb, venison and poultry suited to the Northern Ireland environment.

We look after a herd of 150 Tamworth and Gloucester Old Spots pigs. The early part of each day is taken up with feeding the pigs, who live outdoors all year round in small arks. Our pigs mature slowly at their natural pace. The breeding sows and boars are kept for all their natural lives, even when they have stopped producing litters. Our pigs routinely live to about 10 years old, and are only humanely put down when they become too ill through extreme old age in pig terms. Contrast this with commercial pork production where the sows are considered over the hill at 2 or 3 years old and are routinely despatched because it isn’t considered economic to feed them.

Conserving rare breed farm animals
Pheasants’ Hill Farm specialises in rearing and also supplying the old, and now rare, breeds of farm livestock – Dexter, Irish Moiled and Beef Shorthorn cattle, Southdown and Hebridean sheep, Tamworth and Gloucester Old Spots pigs and Dorking hens.

The beef we sell is Dexter or Irish Moiled, both originally native Irish breeds. All produce marbled beef. Before the advent of industrialised farming, farmers primarily produced meat for their own family’s and their neighbour’s consumption.

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