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Hairy Bikers meet non-hairy Alec!

A slow hum of Triumph bikes announced The Hairy Bikers visit to Packington Poultry, Dunstall (home of free-range happy chickens) on Tuesday 30 June.  Not so lucky for the chickens, they were there to cook!  Part of the Staffordshire episode of their next series, due to be broadcast soon on BBC, took them to the free-range chicken farm to find out how chickens are reared with the best of welfare standards to produce the most deliciously succulent and tasty chicken you can buy.

The Bikers (hairy they are) renowned for their travelling kitchen, double-act antics in far-flung places and food-lovers informal approach to cooking, investigated the free-range chickens amongst the large grass fields bordered with woodland and wild hedgerows.   Alec Mercer, the farmer who has pioneered his own method of breeding the free-range chickens, told them the ins and outs of a bird’s life from chicks to being a Sunday roast!

Despite a demanding filming tour around the UK for their latest series, on their last day neither Si (the big blonde) or Dave (the not-so-big brunette) let their weariness get in the way of getting stuck in to tasty food and some great banter, and a genuine interest in the animals.  Not content with the facts, having ‘a laff’ is clearly high on the agenda.  When asked what inspired them to start the series, they said after meeting on film sets and deciding to devote time to one of their main passions – bike tours – that they really should indulge in their other passions “We love food, and love talking b******s!” 

The farm tour inspired a wealth of questions from the Bikers, keen to know how the chickens were reared, what they ate, how lovely the fields were that they got to roam around all night, whilst being tucked safely out of reach of the foxes at night in spacious barns with footballs and other games for entertainment!  But what needed no words was their faces whilst tasting the juicy, mouth-watering meat during a welcomed pit-stop at the farmhouse…doorstop chicken sandwiches, carved in hunks, dripping with chicken juices, gorged in rustic style, gave their taste buds an introduction to the fabulously succulent chicken, with an old fashioned real tastiness that has long left fast-grown, mass produced supermarket birds.  

Sad to leave the countryside haven, and rustic food, they revved off into the dimming sunshine to cook up a storm in a ‘cook-off’ with the chef at the highly regarded Moat House in Acton Trussell, Stafford.   The resident chef was amazingly beaten by the two hairy blokes, reports said he was a bit gutted but admittedly they had fame on their side!   

They are pretty hairy, very friendly and love their food.  Simple.

Spend five minutes with Roger Mercer and his sons Alec and Robert and it’s easy to see what makes them diversification award-winners.

A fourth generation arable and pig farmer, Roger Mercer has developed the farm into a profitable business which is sure to secure the farm’s future for generations to come. The 1619ha (4000 acre) farm in Staffordshire has been transformed from a commodity pig unit to one that produces high-welfare, free-range premium pigs and chickens. Livestock are sold to butchers across the country through Medium Rare, the meat marketing and distribution company set up by Alec and his friend George Finch.

Through Medium Rare the Mercers have complete control of the entire supply chain, allowing them to obtain a premium on their produce and manage rising commodity costs at a time when other pig producers have been driven from the industry because of poor returns.

With the help of an ERRD grant, Roger has developed several redundant farm buildings into 16,000sq ft of office space and 150,000 sq ft of storage space.

The farm’s traditional arable enterprise also remains an important side of the business. The Mercers are part of a joint venture to farm 2630ha (6500 acres), which includes 2023ha (5000 acres) of wheat. A substantial amount of that land is managed as part of higher level environmental stewardship, under which the Mercers have replanted species-rich grasslands and re-flooded meadows.

While each of the Mercer’s individual enterprises are all impressive, it is perhaps the way they are all managed together as a family which is most commendable.

Working on the basis that each of the businesses has to be able to support itself separately, if it does not make a profit, it is not worth continuing with. “Family structure is very important,” Roger says. “I want the business to move towards the children’s direction so we are all involved in making decisions. It means my role has changed, but it’s still exciting.”

Author: Caroline Stocks

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