We now had to develop our farm. We were no longer able to use the original fish house so we had to construct new holding facilities, for koi fresh from the mud ponds, and also breeding facilities. In order that Mark could concentrate on the farm full time, I set up my own company doing business to business telemarketing for IT companies, working from our office at home. This supported us for the next couple of years. We started trading as Cuttlebrook Koi Farm in March 2001 and have had to make do with the facilities that we had, each year adding to and improving them. With no investor and a determination not to borrow money from the bank to finance the development of the business, the farm has had to pay for itself right from the start. In 2004 it was making enough money for me to stop running my telemarketing business and to concentrate full time on the farm. Early in 2005 we finally completed our spawning facilities and for the first time we were able to breed enough koi in one hit to fill all the nursery ponds in one go. In previous years we’d had to stagger spawnings which meant that valuable growing time was missed. By the end of 2006 we completed our fully insulated and heated Quarantine House where we quarantine new brood stock, our Tosai House where we grow our best tosai, or one year old fish, during their first winter, and our Nisai House where we take our Nisai or two year old fish, over the winter.
Our first polytunnel under construction in 2001
Before.....
.......after
Sparsholt
