Pets

In addition to the farm animals we have our family pet cats and dogs that live and roam freely outside the farmhouse.

We have four cats, Smudge, Wispa, Lamorna and Honey, and three dogs, Tinkerbelle, Bonnie and Molly.

Allergy sufferers please note that the cats and dogs do not enter the farmhouse.


Kerris Farm

Three generations of the Giles family have farmed at Kerris since 1947. The farmhouse was built approximately 150 years ago, and is part of the Bolitho estate.

Our spacious farmhouse has a southerly aspect, enjoying unspoilt rural views across the fields to the woods beyond.

The front garden features a Victorian `Ha Ha' bank and extensive views across the meadow to the fields beyond. In summer birds such as house martins and swallows are a common sight, darting back and forth as they feed their young.

You can walk the footpath across the fields and down into the valley where there is woodland and rhododendrons in flower during May. Plan your day using the many maps, books and leaflets available, or tap into our local knowledge to discover the delights of West Cornwall. An ideal base for visiting Land's End, St Ives, the Minack Theatre and St Michael's Mount. Situated 2.5 miles inland from Mousehole and Newlyn.


Project part funded by
the EU, EAGF and DEFRA

Working Farm

Kerris is a working dairy and beef farm. We have a herd of approximately fifty Friesian Holstein cows, which calve all year round. Nearly all the calves are reared on the farm. Some will go into the milking herd and those sired by a beef bull will go into the beef herd.

The calves are reared naturally on the cow who is allowed in with them twice a day. They start eating hay and nuts from a few weeks old, and are then weaned at about 10 to 12 weeks. In the summer all except the youngest calves will be in the fields grazing. They are brought in, during the Autumn and housed for the winter.

The cows spend the months from May until September, out in the fields eating grass. During the Spring and Autumn they can sleep in at night and go out by day. Through the winter they are kept in most of time, and eat silage and hay. During milking times they are treated to some cow nuts. If it is a good spell of dry weather they can go out for part of the day but not if it is wet as this would cause the grass to be churned up into muddy areas, which would not be good for the ground.

In the winter they eat mainly silage that is made during the early Summer. This is grass that is cut with a mower, chopped up with a forage, harvested, blown into a trailer and brought back to the farm, placed in a heap, rolled with a tractor to pack it down, covered with sheets of plastic, to keep the air out and left to ferment for a few months. The cows love it. In June we plant about 8 acres of Kale seed. The cows can then self feed off this in the field from the end of September until about Christmas.

The milking is carried out twice a day, between 8am and 9am and 5.30pm and 6.30pm. The milk is stored in refrigerated bulk tanks and is collected every other day.