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Soil comes first
Everything we do on our farm focuses on the impact it will have on the soil. We work to grow more soil organisms like collembola, known as spring tails and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, but also the more well know earthworms.
Most life needs air and water, so giving access into the soil of these two is essential. We therefore travel less and use smaller machines to do our farming. Oh and we don't plough either.
Growing quality food starts in the soil.
Diverse Leys
We sow diverse, multispecies, herbal leys that have over 33 varieties of plants from 24 species of clovers, grasses and herbs. This is the biodiversity that primes the system. They are full of nectar producing plants and insects and are ideal for foraging for bees and farmland birds as well as cows. The diversity in the seed mix ensures plants ideally suited to every corner of every field, with less competition the different species and varieties occupy more of the soil profile too making a more active and dynamic sward and root system. The diversity makes for a healthier diet for our cows to savour. We have recently been part of the LegumeLink project which has demonstrated the outstanding benefits from a polyculture, mixed species, pasture sward, the research was published in 2013 (LegumeLink, 2013).
Cereals, Quality Produce
The cultivated crops on the farm are wheat, barley, oats and field beans. We work closely with our long term customers who produce flour, porridge oats and malt for whiskey from our crops. Soil Quality or Terroir is a critical influence for produce quality. This factor has been understood in viticulture for a long time and is beginning to be understood in farming.
Terroir is about tasting the quality of the soil in the quality of the products being consumed.
Cattle
Our herd of pedigree Aberdeen Angus beef cattle is growing steadily from 6 heifers in 1996 to nearly three hundred animals today. Their welfare is paramount to us, in the way we keep them and in the way we treat them. They are given neither routine antibiotics nor growth promoting drugs and we even attend courses to make sure we understand and meet their needs and treat them with respect. Our cattle feed on our herbal rich diverse pastures and are fed hay and silage during the winter. Ruminent animals are natural converters of pasture crops (cellulose) into food and Aberdeen Angus cattle are beautifully suited to our low input system, naturally without horns, easy calving, easy fattening, happy cows.
Agroforestry
-including Silvopastoral Farming, Hedge rows and Copses.
About 5 years ago we started grazing small areas of woodland attached to permanent pastures (after checking with Natural England). It has been such a success that we plan to allow access of the cattle to all our woodland. Don't panic, this is only for short periods of time when the animals are nearby. The trees and shrubs provide browsing, shelter from wind and rain and sun. The cattle allow an opening of the vegetation providing a new dynamic element to the growth of the plants. This process is also bringing the woodland directly into the farm organism.
Maybe we will end up electric fencing our crops to allow our cattle to roam everywhere else in future?
Wildlife and Honey
The farm has areas of woodland rich in bluebells and orchids. Deer, hares, hedgehogs, buzzards, hawks, kytes and a rich array of farmland birds including: corn bunting, common curlew, linnets, yellow hammers, tree sparrows, sky larks, barn owls, little owls, tawny owls, quail, short eared owl, lapwing, and partridges as well as more common birds. We have already run projects to maintain and improve the environment in terms of planting and caring for hedges and woodlands, improving meadows etc. The results are already visible on every corner of the farm. Colourful finches nest in the many hedgerows and butterflies and bees help with pollination. Some of the bees work hard to produce our delicious natural honey. Ladybirds help to keep pests at bay and owls and rare bats find shelter in our barns. We are also planting special bird seed crops to feed wild birds when feed is in short supply in the Spring. Having said that the farming and the wildlife are one and whole, indivisible. We always strive to do better.
Some lovely comments from locals and observers:
"… so many more bugs here than other farms I go to", "the hares are the size of foxes here", "your Farm is cherished", "a feel of velvet"