Farmer Profiles

"I had always been interested in soil but began to explore the relationship between soil and animal health more and developed an interest in anthelmintic resistance and how we could control that biologically, or rather manage parasites better biologically..."

Wheatsheaf Farming is a joint venture contracting company owned by the farmers involved to give economies of scale. I manage the business - the total hectarage is around 700 hectares across 3 farms and the base for the operations is Folly Farm. Wheatsheaf is non-profit and charges the client farmers a hectarage fee to cover all fixed costs which is paid monthly.

"...our focus is now on woodlands you can graze animals through and designing them that way - and we have gone from more of a biodiversity interest to focusing on carbon, together with the big benefits of wood pasture giving animals shelter and providing early grass..."

"I (Mike) manage the farm at High and Low Callis Wold together with my family. I am the third generation of a 3-generation tenancy (more than 2 thirds of our land is rented). The farm has gradually grown to what is now 1,100 acres of arable and grazing land, and is a diverse business, with all the livestock and around 50% of the arable land farmed organically, in what is a very traditional farming area of the Wolds..."

Great Wollaston is a 242 acre mixed family farm on the edge of the Shropshire Hills on the English/Welsh border.  We grow winter wheat and winter barley and a mix of peas and spring barley for home use for our dairy herd’s forage, with any excess wheat and barley being sold off the farm. We […]

We have a 1.5 acre organic vineyard, plus polytunnels. We grow a wide range of crops for our vegetable box scheme. We also sell wholesale. One of our first customers was the wholefood shop in Rugby, who still take our produce today. Today we concentrate on the vineyard though the veg box scheme continues on a smaller scale […]

"A much more traditional and diverse mix of grasses that has been fully rested from grazing and its nutrients replenished gives a healthier diet for the cows and I believe also gives the meat a better flavour..."

"Agroforestry provides risk management against climate change and extreme weather events. It also means we can grow a mix of perennial and annual crops..."

I run the family farm, near Shrewsbury in Shropshire, in partnership with my wife Louise and my parents John and Chris. It has been organic since 2000. At present we milk 300 cows, but we are aiming to have about 500.  We aim to have 2 dairy herdsmen managing 250 cows 18 miles apart and […]

We farm 2500 acres regeneratively and organically, applying a holistic approach. We are currently growing organic linseed, organic gluten-free oats and wheat / grain varieties, and have 480 New Zealand Frisian Jersey crossbreed dairy cows and a mobile milking parlour. The dairy enterprise is run as a shared-farm partnership. *Tim is an OF&G licensee. The […]

...They are “organic, grown with nature, small scale and local.” The vegetable cropping is just under 10 acres and is part of a larger 130 acre farm - 50 acres are young mixed native woodland, 5 are unharvested crops for winter birds, and the remainder are grass (grazing for both cattle and sheep, hay and silage) and cereals...

The RBOrganic Ltd team grow carrots, onions, leeks, potatoes, parsnips, beetroots and courgettes. We are a LEAF Marque certified business. We work as an integrated part of Houghton Estate, which also has chickens, pigs, English Longhorn beef, and sheep in rotation as well as a large area of permanent parkland with a deer herd. In […]

"My whole philosophy revolves around improving soil health, so we try to minimise practices that damage soils and use certain practices to increase soil health..."

The realisation that they were using more and more pesticides, herbicides and fungicides on the farm and essentially getting less effect from them has driven Andy's long-term goal of sustainability and reduced reliance on non-renewable resources (along with a deep concern about the decline in insects and biodiversity).

"I don’t look at irrigation, pest control, planting and weeding separately… the system is set up as one whole organic system and trees are integral to this..."

We are a mixed farm set across 1600 acres of Cotswold Brash, the stony, thin and relatively heavy soils that run through Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and beyond. The farm is at roughly 350 m with an average rainfall of 28 inches. The main operation of the farm is dairy and beef production; we keep around 400 […]

"One of our main concerns is delivering optimum results for both animals and nature by maintaining a balance and preventing woodland and scrub from overwhelming the grassland..."

Wimpole Home Farm is an organic 589 hectare (1,419 acre) mixed livestock and arable farm near Cambridge. It is part of the National Trust’s 2,500 acre Wimpole Estate, and is the only lowland farm run in-hand by the National Trust.

The main output from Homeacres is salad bags, which contain washed and mixed leaves of many flavours, which vary with the seasons. I sell over a tonne every year to local restaurants and shops, and I also sell 5 boxes weekly from June to December. The polytunnel and greenhouse are used for protected crops, while […]

"We were founder members of the Pasture-Fed Livestock Association and the ORFC. We’re very interested in expanding our knowledge and finding out what we can do better and with the same amount of land hopefully continue producing more and better food but at the same time fixing more carbon for a longer time as well..."

Berkeley Farm Dairy began in 1908 with my husband Nick’s grandfather delivering milk from his dairy herd by horse and cart to customers in Wroughton and Swindon. The farm is now fourth generation, with our son Edward as farm manager. We have 120 Guernsey cows and process our own milk. We supply Abel & Cole […]

Smiling Tree Farm is a 70 acre pastoral farm that focuses on regenerating soil health through the use of mob-grazed ruminants raised exclusively on diverse permanent pastures, wildflower meadows, special fields of herbs, and browsing trees. We are, in effect, turning sunlight into meat and milk. (Shetland sheep grazing a herbal ley) The farm has […]

"We are working towards a regenerative agriculture model, restoring soil that was becoming less and less fertile and having symptoms of poor health such as blackgrass, low worm counts, poor soil structure, low soil organic matter, soil erosion and poor drainage."

We have 100 crossbred dairy cows (Swedish Red x Montbeliard x Holstein) producing 6650l (4.5%Bf, 3.4% Pr. sold to OMSCo) from 1.2t purchased feeds plus home-grown forage. All calves are kept and finished or kept/sold as breeding heifers. Cast cows are made into burgers and sold at our visitor centre. The herd is a closed herd […]