Horticulture Diversification: Launching a pick-your-own pumpkin venture on your farm

Cost: Free

Lower House Farm occupies 114 acres at the bottom of the Wentwood Hills in Llanfair Discoed, Monmouthshire. Historically a dairy farm, it is now being used for mixed livestock mostly calf rearing and breeding ewes. The Monmouthshire County Council farm is run and managed by Matt Brooks and Laura Pollock, new entrant farmers looking to diversify the business in a number of different directions, including horticulture tourism.  In addition to the above, they have other animals including Highland cows, belted Galloways, goats, sheep, hens and pigs. These are used for local engagement and educational events hosted on the farm to enhance people’s awareness and appreciation for agriculture and food production in Wales.

The aim of the farm trial is to test a route into horticulture by establishing a Pick Your Own(PYO) venture focusing on pumpkin and squash production. The project is exploring in house propagation as well as purchasing plants from a nursery, comparing cost, plant establishment and yield.

This event will showcase the trial at a pivotal time, allowing farmers and growers to see how the crop has established, understand which methods have worked best and explore methods that may work on their own site. Laura and Matt will share their lessons learnt and we will have a guest speaker sharing further information on how to diversify into the Pick-Your-Own sector. Following the speakers, attendees will get a tour of the farm with light refreshments to finish.

This event will benefit farmers and growers looking to start a new horticulture tourism venture or expand a current PYO business model.

To book your place for this event, register below or contact Horticulture Sector Officer Hannah Norman:  hannah.norman@menterabusnes.co.uk / 07497 368 476

*Please ensure that you complete all steps in the process from 1 to 4 in order to complete your booking. You will see a "Thank you" message once all steps have been completed.*

Terms of Business

Your privacy is important to Farming Connect and in line with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), an Events Privacy Notice informs you why we collect, use, and process your information and who will have access to it. By booking a place on a Farming Connect event/course, you accept these terms and conditions.

By booking a place on a Farming Connect or Welsh Government event/course, you accept the general terms and conditions of using Welsh Government online services, and accept the Farming Connect Fair Processing Note.
We may also use the information you provide to offer you personalised or local services, to notify you of changes to our service, to ask your opinions and to help us to improve our services.
Websites that we link to are likely to have Terms and Conditions that are different from ours. Do not assume that our Terms and Conditions apply to other websites.
The delegate acknowledges that all course material, program material or copies thereof are and will remain the property of the training provider and may be subject to copyright. It is expressly agreed that neither the delegate nor their sponsoring organisation will copy the whole or any part of those materials without the written consent of the training provider.
We reserve the right to cancel or amend the timings of these sessions at any point up to the stated start time of the session; bespoke information will be provided for each course.
Delegates may also cancel their booking at any time by following the link in their confirmation email or by contacting the Service Centre.
The Farming Connect Service Centre is open Monday to Friday between 08:00-17:00, with exception to all Public Holidays.
For more information on Farming Connect please visit our website or call us on 03456 000 813.
This directory contains information about events offered by Farming Connect, Welsh Government, and other providers in the public and private sectors. We are not responsible for information about events offered by other providers and we cannot take responsibility for the consequences of your using that information.