Category: Farming and Dairy

Down on the farm February 2022

Posted on February 14, 2022 by - Blog, Down on the farm, Environmental Management, Farming and Dairy, Woodhorn Farm, Woodhorn Group

February is often the coldest month of the year here and we valued the frosts, which are increasingly rare these days, we had in January. Hopefully, we will have a few more before spring. One of the biggest benefits of a series of hard frosts is the impact on the fields that have been ploughed and left bare over the winter. In these situations, the ground is ploughed in a way to make it ‘stand up’ and so maximise the surface area subjected to frost. The frost gets into the water molecules in the soil and the resulting freezing/thawing process naturally breaks up the soil. When we come to sow a crop in the spring, this ‘frost shatter’ will enable us to create the perfect fine seedbed required for the small seeds.

Winter ploughing for this reason has been a feature of good farming practice since the plough was first invented (the first evidence of ploughing dates back to c.3800bc on a site in the Czech Republic). But a combination of the quest to address climate change and the demands of our organic farming system, has meant that we only have a couple of fields that are ‘winter ploughed’ this year in favour of growing a winter ‘cover crop.’ Cover crops are not destined for harvest or sale, but they can perform a valuable function as part of a sustainable farming system.

A healthy soil health is critical to the ability to grow anything. One tablespoon of healthy soil has more individual organisms than the total number of humans on earth; but a neglected soil can be almost devoid of life. There are a number of aspects to maintaining soil health and one is maintaining biomass levels which are crucial to maintaining structure and providing the feed for these billions of micro-organisms. Increasing biomass levels is also a way of locking up carbon in the soil and thus balancing the carbon equation. Cover crops can help provide this biomass. We sow our cover crops, ranging from mustard to turnips, in the autumn after harvest and these will be grazed off by sheep before a spring crop (barley, wheat or maize) is sown. These cover crops grow fast over the winter and thus create a lot of biomass. Grazing by sheep returns the biomass to the soil through their poo which is also in a form that increases the benefit to the soil. Sheep don’t run on fossil fuel either!

There is another benefit to cover crops which we, as organic farmers, particularly value. We don’t, of course, use the usual artificial fossil fuel based nitrate fertilisers that provide an instant boost to crop growth. Our fertility comes from our manures, composts, and legumes such as clover. Building fertility takes years but the benefit can be lost quickly if land is left bare too often when rain can wash the nutrients in the soil away. Cover crops take up the soil nutrients into their plant matter, hold them safely for us and then they are returned back to the soil through the back end of a sheep! This is good for the soil, good for our crops, good for ground water quality, good for carbon capture and the sheep seem to be happy with the arrangement too!

You may have heard by now that we are planning on a new project to sell our organic milk through a vending machine in Oving Jubilee Hall car park. Our milk will be pasteurised on the farm but not homogenised i.e. safe, healthy, and still as nature intended.

There are environmental benefits of being able to source local and organic of course, but we also hope to reduce packaging as well as ‘food miles.’ People can bring their own containers or buy their own glass bottles. The real point is zero plastic, but glass bottles also have an indefinite life and can be used repeatedly.

More people want to know where their food is coming from, and we plan to have open days or tractor/trailer tours around the farm and specifically so everyone can meet our cows.

This project is still in the ‘design stage’ and won’t be up and running for some time. But if you’re interested in how this develops, you can receive news as we progress by signing up to receive email updates here: www.woodhornfarm.co.uk

In the meantime, I leave you with a couple of important questions (and answers):

Why do cows have hooves instead of feet?
They lack toes (lactose).

Why was the cow afraid?
She was a cow-herd.

John Pitts

Down on the farm – May 2021

Posted on May 13, 2021 by - Blog, Down on the farm, Environmental Management, Farming and Dairy, Woodhorn Group

The coldest and driest April on record followed last year’s drought, which itself was the most extreme in all my years of farming. Extremes in weather really do seem to be the trend now and it inevitably forces us to ask many challenging questions which start (and almost end) with ‘how do we produce food without water?’

It has now rained and doesn’t look like stopping any time soon! So is this just normal ‘British weather’ or are we looking at genuine changes in weather patterns? I think the latter and without debating the causes, we must adapt because the answer to my question is: ‘you can’t produce food without water’!

All the land in Oving parish sits over chalk that acts as a natural underground aquifer. Fissures in the chalk store winter rainfall water that can be extracted in the spring/summer via boreholes. However, as the population increases in the region and more houses are built every year, the competition for this finite water resource increases. Naturally, the demand from the water companies take precedent over the needs of farming and the Environment agency will not allow farms to sink new bore holes. At the same time, a combination of climate change and demand from the water companies is already reducing water levels in our stream and rivers with serious knock on effects to these important wildlife habitats.

However, we have plenty of water in the winter (winters seems to be getting wetter annually so no concerns there!) when of course we don’t need it. The solution is to capture the winter rainfall and store it in reservoirs for spring/summer use. This is what we are looking at now, but the cost is extremely high. The reality is that the total value of an acre of wheat or barley is less than the cost of storing water, let alone applying it and paying the Environment Agency a fee for the privilege of being allowed to do it in the first place. High value intensive crops such as vegetables can absorb this cost but not traditional arable crops or grassland.

This poses some interesting questions, including whether we will see a significant change in what is grown in our region’s fields? Vineyards are already popping up everywhere and salad and vegetables are already widely grown. But the latter crops need to be part of a long term rotation with the likes of wheat or grass to prevent disease and maintain soil health. How will we achieve this without water? (Off topic but extremely relevant, is the question of who is going to pick the veg?). Organically, we also need to maintain our dairy herd to create fertility and enable a balanced environmentally sound rotation. No water means no grass and again, irrigation is prohibitively expensive.

So we have some challenges ahead but somewhere in the mix is an opportunity that we will find and embrace. Perhaps the holy grail is being able to enjoy a summer BBQ whilst knowing that our crops aren’t going thirsty -if that’s not a challenge worth taking up, I don’t know what is!

All our spring crops have now been sown and the last of these, maize, is just poking out the ground. We have a few more weeks before the rooks and crows will leave it alone. The cows have been out at grass since early March but are only now getting to enjoy some warmth and sun on their backs. This is important as our cows are extremely soft and pampered. So whilst some of their brethren in Scotland and Cumbria would find the coldest day in Oving a delight, the bovine residents at Reeds Farm would happily take a flight to Spain for some extra sun whether they had to quarantine on their return or not!

John Pitts

Down on the farm – February 2021

Posted on February 23, 2021 by - Blog, Down on the farm, Environmental Management, Farming and Dairy, Soils and Composting, Woodhorn Group

Overall organic food and drink sales in the UK increased by 12.6% in 2020, the highest growth in 15 years. Farm shops have thrived and there are positive signs that people are becoming more interested in provenance and even seasonality. Dairy and meat sales have also increased over the last year. Until the pandemic I thought it was farmers that fed the nation, but I have since learned it is Sainsburys and Tesco. But regardless, all of you, our customers, place a great deal of trust in us as farmers to not only deliver food that is safe, tastes good and is priced fairly, but is produced to the highest standards in terms of animal welfare and care for the environment. Thank you.

Whilst I may not be inclined to praise the major multiples, I was pleasantly surprised to have my suspicion of large food and retail businesses challenged, even if for a rather unfortunate reason. Covid inevitably caused significant challenges across the fresh food sector, including temporary drops in demand for milk as the ‘service sector’ (you would be amazed to know how much milk is sold daily through the nation’s coffee shops!) was forced to shut down. The impact was felt acutely by Organic farmers too, but for the surprising reason that it turns out that McDonald’s and Pret a Manger are the biggest buyers of organic milk in the hospitality industry, but of course they were hit extremely hard by lockdown. Thankfully, organic milk sales to the public eventually boomed and Yeo Valley (100% organic yoghurts and butter) have had a record year.

The combination of global pandemic and Brexit was never going to be a good news story. Our organic dairy cooperative exports to Europe and the USA and this activity now ranges from extremely difficult to impossible, despite the much heralded (and greatly welcomed) Brexit deal. We also export organic barley to Europe to make organic beer. Brexit destroyed this market pre-deal and then the pandemic has finished it off due to the collapse of beers sales because bar closures across Europe.

Probably the most unexpected consequence of Covid, for us, was the uplift in online sales of our Earth Cycle products last spring when garden centres were closed. An ‘ill wind’ I guess, but one we were grateful for.

Of course, almost every business has its Covid and Brexit challenges and we are lucky and far more fortunate than many, and few have open fields and countryside to enjoy at work. I must pay tribute also to the Woodhorn Team and all key workers who have been incredible in their determination to work through this most challenging of times with diligence, dedication, and good humour.

We have been enormously saddened and shocked at the (non Covid related but completely unexpected) passing of Richard Cousins who had led the arable farm team for the last ten years at Woodhorn. Many of you will have known him or seen him ploughing his furrow (literally) and no doubt some of your children will remember him from the visits to the farm by the March school which were hosted by Richard. He is, and will continue to be, sorely missed.

Spring in its on its way and it is the time I must apologise in advance for any inconvenience caused by muck spreading and rook scaring. Both are essential functions of producing Organic crops, but we always recognise our duty to minimise the impact on our community as much as possible. We take this seriously but thank you in advance for your understanding when needed.

Our focus on carbon reduction and the potential impacts of climate change is proving time (a scarce resource at the moment!) consuming and challenging, but also fascinating. Bit by bit we are creating a comprehensive plan to take what I hope has been a positive eco strategy for the past 20 + years, to the next stage. Carbon management will focus on building soil organic matter (removing carbon from the atmosphere and ‘storing’ it in the soil), dairy nutrition and renewable energy. Water resource management (driven by increasing water scarcity during drier summers and flooding concerns due to wetter winters) will look at storing winter rainfall for summer use. We are also in the process of creating a new scheme to benefit our flora and fauna by the creation of new and improved areas to support pollinators and birds (for example). We are learning all the time. For example, a bat has been discovered on the farm (the Barbastelle bat) that I had not only never heard of but is under serious threat, being one of the rarest mammals in the UK. Only this week I learned of the advantages of planting small strategically sited groups of trees to disrupt the movement of harmful particles in the air emanating from road traffic. Something else we will look at with interest.

John Pitts