The feed we use is free from antibiotics and additives using cereals (wheat, oats, barley) grown locally to the mill.  Soy and sunflowers comes from sustainable sources in Argentina and North America.  The mill uses peas and beans to reduce the inclusion of soy where possible but year round supply of peas and beans is difficult to achieve.  We use marigold flowers which along with the carotene from the grass gives them a lovely golden appearance and adds a good layer of fat under the skin.

As a farm we are always looking for ways to reduce the inclusion of soy in our diets because of the food miles and effects of soy on the environment.  Currently we cannot offer soy free chickens year round because alternative protein sources are not available year round or are uneconomical. 

When possible we are producing soy free batches of chickens. Contact us for more information.

Why go soy-free? The UK imports soy largely from South America, with the majority of this to be consumed by its livestock. Soy producers in South America are rapidly deforesting ecosystems, destroying rich biodiversity, and using large amounts of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. So, while the chickens, pigs and cattle being raised in the UK are labelled as ‘locally grown’, the feed they consume often comes from thousands of miles away, and only represents half the truth about the origins of the meat.

How can Fosse Meadows produce soy-free chickens? Fosse Meadows can go soy-free simply because our aim is not to grow meat as quickly as possible. We rear traditional slow-growing breeds, such as the French Hubbard, and grow them slowly to a minimum of 81 days.  The lower protein ingredients in the soy diet means we are producing small batches of birds from March to November.

Our birds are a ‘natural’ chicken, how they should be, with longer legs and elongated breasts; whereas commercial broiler birds, commonly Ross’s, have small legs and are genetically designed to produce large breasts. The intensive broiler birds simply couldn’t grow at an efficient rate without the use of a high-protein soy feed. 

GM & Soy free small holder feed ration

Drug Free - All our feeds are completely drug free and produced in our own drug free mill. No artificial flavours, unnatural yolk colourants, growth promoters, antibiotics, coccidiostats or other medicinal additives are used in our feeds. We only use natural ingredients, we do not use ‘nature identical’ flavours or additives which have been synthetically produced to mimic their natural alternatives, all of the herbs we use are the real thing!

Omega 3 Oils - We only ever use the highest quality vegetable oils and linseed for Omega 3. Animal fats and recovered oils such as chip fat have never been used in our feeds.

No Hexane - Our oils are pressed, not harshly extracted with the solvent hexane, making them as natural as possible.

Commitment to Quality - We are committed to the highest standards in our production processes, our mill has achieved Quality Management ISO 9001 and Environmental Management ISO 14001. Our mill is also assured by the Universal Feed Assurance Scheme (UFAS) for good practice in quality control and assurance