Open Farm Sunday Reflection

Open Farm Sunday in numbers

The New Year is a great time to look back at the achievements of the previous year and cast an eye to the coming year and what might be coming over the horizon.  Open Farm Sunday is always the first date that goes into our farming diary at Overbury and although our visit is quite low key and limited in numbers, it's a great opportunity to talk real farming issues to those guests who book onto our tractor and trailer rides.  Our contribution is small, but collectively our industry, when it puts it's mind to it, can achieve great things.

I had a quick look back to 2011, when it was a wet and cold event at Overbury and nationally 120,000 people visited events.  Staggeringly 2016 saw in excess of 260,000 people visiting our open farms. Some of the quotes from host farmers in 2011 still ring true today:

"highly rewarding and the feedback has been extremely positive",

"I feel really proud to talk about the food we produce and the work we do for the environment".

Those messages are still so true today.  Our food and the environment, in which it is grown and nurtured, are so important and in the coming months and years we must not loose sight of this important message.  As negotiations take place about how we exit from the European Union (Brexit) it is a matter of national importance to secure a safe supply of home produced high quality, nutritious food from a protected but managed environment.  Our countryside is under pressure from more houses, more people and more access, it's something that won't change or reverse so we all need an understanding of how our countryside works.  Farm visitors also get so much out of the events, it really is a two way conversation:

"Wow, absolutely superb day.  Thoroughly enjoyed every part and my children had a great time"

"Showed a good insight into live on a working farm"

In the great world of on-line social media to get #OFS16 trending is a great achievement and it really does help to spread the word to see what we actually do. In 2011, 362 farmers opened their farm gates.  In 2016 this number had risen to 382.  My challenge to our industry is to get out there, welcome people and get involved before it is too late.  Now is the time to add June 11th into your diary, the next Open Farm Sunday event. If you are unsure about what is involved or concerned about any aspect of becoming a host, there are free training sessions run by LEAF to give you all the information you need.  So there it is, an easy New Years resolution, host an Open Farm Sunday event, make a difference to your industry and have some fun!

Conservation Grade Student

Yesterday I travelled to Royston in Hertfordshire for an Induction Day into becoming a farmer growing 'Conservation Grade' milling wheat for this years harvest. The training took place at Thrift Farm and is owned by Robert Law Robert has been one of the pioneers of Conservation Grade (CG) cereals, growing Oats for Jordans and as one of the 80 or so CG, growers has dedicated 10% of the arable area of the farm to wildlife.

The day started with an induction about CG from Brin Hughes about how the organisation started and what the aims are.  In a nutshell the idea is to grow food for people and wildlife on the same farm, whilst getting a premium from the customer for the nature friendly production methods (very important!)  In essence the farm needs to provide varying degrees of habitat and food sources for different insects, mammals and birds made up of specific types.  4% must be in Pollen and Nectar Mixes, 2% on Wild Bird Food, 2% in fine tussocky grasses and the final 2% in other habitats, such as hedgerows, ditches, watercourses, woodland and ponds.  These percentages work in nicely for us with our Higher Level Stewardship Agreement.  A farm map is also needed to help the assessor when being audited, once a year.  Within two years there is a habitat assessment to ensure all of the habitats we say we've planted have been done and managed accordingly.

We had a great talk by Peter Thompson from the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust all about habitat selection for targets species.  First you need to know what species you have then you need to sort out the habitats.  Where to sight them, what to grow in the them, how to establish them and their following management.  All these snippets of information are so valuable when trying to plan these additions around the farm landscape. As Robert said "its easier to manage 500 acres of wheat than 60 acres of bird food".  I think that sums up the philosophy of these guys willing to go the extra mile for conservation and taking pride in the food that they grow, for people and wildlife.

We saw one of Roberts new barn Owl Boxes and heard about the Nature Friendly Owls project.  These birds are at the top of the food chain on our farms and if they are thriving then its a very good sign that those below them are also doing very well indeed.  In all I had a great day and I am looking forward to working with these farmers in the future, which can only be good for our business and also for our wildlife.  I can't help thinking that there are so many similarities and passions that CG farmers have with LEAF Farmers that there isn't some way of linking the two organisations together in some way?  We'll as the nubie of the group I'll leave that one quietly on the back burner for now, but leave you with a quote from Sir David Bellamy.

 "It's not just nature that benefits from Conservation Grade, we all do.  We see more birds and more bees and hear more buzzing and bird song.  On these farms we can start to enjoy the countryside again".  Keep watching and listening to hear how we get on.

Time For An Unseasonal Haircut

Now its time for something different!  Last week we tried a new management practise with the early lambing ewes at Park Farm and that was to give them a very unseasonal haircut.  Don't worry though, they have about 6 weeks before they lamb and then a further two weeks around the farm buildings which will give them plenty of time to grow a nice new woolly coat.  There are many positive reasons to winter shear the ewes.  Firstly they will be more comfortable and cooler as they are naturally an outdoor all year around species resulting in less stress on the sheep, shearing put to one side, but once a year they get that anyway.  They should also eat less and be more efficient with what they eat, as they are no using energy to keep cool.  Click YouTube - Farmer Jake to see the action!

From our point of view any ewes having difficulties during lambing should be easier to spot, although they might be harder to catch!  We should, in theory, be able to put a few more ewes in each pen, as they require less space.  It is much easier to assess the condition of the ewes and put the ewes in better condition groups, i.e. a thinner twin can be bumped up to the triplets to give her more feed.  It's also a much easier time of year to do the job.  We don't have to get the ewes in from the fields and spilt off their lambs, this will save us lots of time.  The coats won't grow a tremendous amount until the later summer so we won't have to gather them in the spring to 'dag' (trim) the dirty back ends of the sheep (after eating the lush grass).  It's just an experiment at this time but who knows, if it works we might be doing all of them next year!