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WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY & SOME EXCITING NEWS
Jun 2020

New adventures...

Its World Environment Day and the focus for 2020 is biodiversity. This is something that we care about and hopefully this comes through in the tone of our website and social media channels. We believe that through traditional (non-intensive) farming methods we can enhance the biodiversity of the land and showcase all the benefits that brings with it.

With this in mind, we thought today was the perfect opportunity to make an exciting announcement (although most of the locals seem to have found out already anyway!)… We have just taken on an extra ~180 acres of land with the intention of farming it in such a way as to restore and enhance the biodiversity across the area.

It is particularly exciting for us as it is a chunk of land that was originally part of our farm (before we came to the farm) so it is great to be able to bring it back into the farm again. The land, which we know as Highfields (giving our farm its name) was bought by the National Trust a few years ago who have now decided to offer a longer term arrangement, which is when we decided to get involved. I believe that our ambitions for improving the land align closely with the aims of the National Trust so I have high hopes that we can work well together and make this into an exciting project.

One of our key intentions is for greater public engagement with farming and the ways it (if done right) can benefit the environment. To this end we will be providing access across significant parts of the land and encouraging the public to make the most of this and engage with the environment around them. Keep your eyes on our website and social media for more information on this in the coming days and weeks…

The land has a substantial area of flower meadows which we will maintain and improve through grazing and haymaking each summer. We will be providing defined access routes through the meadows to allow people to get a closer look at them but obviously not free access that would be detrimental to the flora. There is also a significant section of the Coombsdale SSSI on this land which we hope to improve to showcase the large numbers of species present on the lower section of the SSSI that we already own. Finally, there is the Oarystones area which is a very impressive natural formation of limestone with very thin soil covering. This provides an ideal habitat for species such as Orchids and is well worth a walk around to experience its beauty close-up.

Look out for our signs and information boards that will be going up to guide you across the land.

We are passionate about farming with native breed livestock and will continue this with our management of the land. The land will be grazed year-round with native breeds such as Highland and Hereford cattle, and we will manage the numbers present to ensure the best health of the land.

We have not had the most amazing start to this venture with Corona virus locking the country down but hopefully we are gradually moving through the worst of this and we look forward to seeing you out on the land, enjoying nature as it should be enjoyed. Don’t forget to tag us in your photos of Highfields (@highfieldsfarmhouse) and contact us with any questions you might have.

ENVIRONMENTAL MYTHOLOGY
Dec 2019

The importance of buying local and backing British Farming

You can’t fail to have noticed the recent storm over farming and the environment. So what is this all about and what is the truth of it? Well, essentially the main thrust of the argument is farming = bad, everyone should go vegan. In a bit more detail, the claim is that meat production emits large amounts of greenhouse gasses (GHGs) and therefore is causing global warming, with some claims putting farm emissions levels on a par with the transport industry.

This leads to the conclusion that we should “eat less meat”. What we’re hoping to do with this post is to dispel this conclusion as misguided, set out the actual evidence and show how you can make a choice that actually benefits the environment.

Returning to that claim, even just intuitively this doesn’t feel right does it? I mean, compare the great British countryside (green fields, woodland, animals grazing) with cities and road networks (air thick with smog and pollutants). However, this claim had an origin; the NOA Long Shadow report in 2006 was the initial place where these figures appeared, stating that transport, industry and farming all had a global GHG contribution of around 17%. What the vegan propaganda fails to tell us is that the authors of this report fully retracted this conclusion when it was pointed out to them that they had assessed the different sectors on entirely different bases, skewing the results to make meat production appear far worse than it is. If you re-calculate the figures on a more consistent basis then meat production world wide is actually well below 10% of emissions.

What these “meat is bad” arguments fail to explain is that by maintaining the British countryside as a mixture of permanent pasture, moorland and woodland, on which sheep and cows grow extremely well, we are providing a huge carbon sink. This natural green space sequesters CO2 from the atmosphere, combatting global warming. In fact, we have done the calculations for our farm and can show that we are net carbon negative. Our farm’s annual sequestration is approximately 30 tonnes CO2 greater than what we emit, which would be roughly equivalent to running 20 cars for the year! We are environmentally conscious but we’re not doing anything ground-breaking - this is typical of traditional UK livestock farming methods.

So, how does the “meat is bad” argument get around this fact then? Well because not all global agriculture is like this. The data trotted out by vegan enthusiasts and more recently by that very poor “documentary” the BBC produced is extracted solely from intensive feed-lot type farms. The BBC programme featured these type of farms in South America and South Africa and (despite the BBC claiming to be impartial) didn’t present anything of traditional British farming methods.

The Truth is that if you keep animals in these feed-lot systems then yes they produce GHGs, they require a lot of water, they require large quantities of imported feed (maize, soya etc) and there is essentially no sequestration of CO2 because there isn’t a blade of grass in sight. So yes, this system of farming is not particularly sustainable or environmentally friendly BUT it absolutely does not stand that the environmental impact of a farm like this can be blanket applied across the entire industry, especially here in the UK.

The alternative to eating meat is purported to be the entire world turning to a “plant based diet” because this is seen to be better than the selectively picked emissions data of meat production. If we examine this a little further, we see it falling down in a number of areas. Firstly, approximately 65% of the UK is unsuitable for growing crops. This means we would have to import huge amounts of plant based product, with the corresponding increase in air miles on all our food, generating large amounts of GHGs. Sure, imported meat has the same issue but it is not necessary to import meat from the other side of the world – buy locally produced food from a sustainable farm.

Secondly, don’t let the ethics argument fool you. Anyone who claims to only eat a plant based diet because they don’t like killing animals is a hypocrite. In order to grow crops on an industrial scale, it requires huge amounts of chemical sprays – pesticides, herbicides & fungicides. So not only does this kill off a huge number of animals (albeit mostly insects not ones with cute faces) it creates huge areas of monoculture completely lacking in any form of bio-diversity. Let’s not forget that insects form the basis of food chains for a massive swathe of the world’s eco-system. For example, bird populations have suffered drastically from this creation of mono-cultures We keep hearing the (very valid and commendable) campaigns to save the bees but how do you think bees and other insects will fare if we are trying to feed the world off plants? In the UK our arable farmers attempt to find some balance by leaving areas of fields known as set-aside to encourage bio-diversity but let’s not forget the UK has the highest farming standards in the world and we already know most of our plant-based diet would have to come from overseas where these standards are much lower or non-existent so don’t hold out much hope for bio-diversity there, especially if there is profit to be made. This argument extends to the effect that use of chemical sprays and fertilisers has on water courses. The chemical run-off into water courses has the potential to poison the aquatic eco-systems there, not forgetting that the rivers all run into the oceans. Again, something that is carefully regulated in the UK with the use of buffer zones for sprays and nitrate vulnerable zones for fertilisers but I would not hold out much hope in less regulated countries.

Thirdly, where is all this going to be grown? Are we looking at an even bigger scale of de-forestation than we are seeing already? Anyone who watched David Attenborough’s recent programme cannot have felt comfortable watching the vast swathes of jungle being turned over to palm oil production. This will be exactly the same situation for growing those vegan staples soya, avocado, quinoa etc. Yes I am aware that some animal feed comes from soya but the reality is a large part of what is animal feed is actually by-product and at the end of the day, traditional British systems do not require significant quantities (if any) of this imported feed. We can produce top quality beef and lamb off diets of predominantly grass.

Furthermore, although the specific emissions of CO2 for a gram of plant-based protein might be lower than for feed-lot produced beef, it can never compete with traditionally farmed British meat. The act of cultivating land to allow crops to be planted releases the CO2 stored in the soil. This has to happen every year so it doesn’t matter how small you claim the emissions to be, with no long term sequestration, it does not get to net negative GHG status (unlike our farm).

Don’t get me wrong, we are not sitting around feeling smug. We are constantly looking for ways to improve our farm. As an example, we are gradually converting all our lighting to LEDs. We are also investigating the possibility of clear silage wrap for next season which is much more easily recyclable than the traditional coloured wrap (maybe the subject of a future blog). And looking to the future, I personally am looking forward to the prospect of electric tractors and the opportunities that could bring.

So how have we ended up in a situation where farming is being treated as the enemy? Well I suspect that it stems from the fact that the extreme vegan community (who would do anything they can to stop animal farming of any kind despite the hypocrisy of their arguments) have cottoned on to the fact that the environment is a topic that is getting a lot of attention at the moment and there is a way to exploit that to further their agenda. Couple that with the fact that the farming community has always been very individual and has rarely been capable of speaking with a strong unified voice and the fact that if you put enough propaganda on social media, the general public will be swayed in their view by sheer weight of “evidence”.

However, I really think that BBC “documentary” may have been a bit of a turning point. There was so much anger in the farming community that a supposedly unbiased institution could present something so unrepresentative of, and damaging to the UK farming industry. It feels like that has really kick started a fight-back to get the real facts out there (it galvanised me into writing this, which I’ve been meaning to do for some time now).

As a final point, we should look at this from an aesthetic point of view. The Great British countryside is loved by millions and is one of the most beautiful and diverse places in the world, with fantastic eco-systems. This landscape has been managed by the farming community for hundreds of years with, broadly speaking, the same practices that we have today. Without livestock farming we would lose a huge amount of much loved landscapes to either scrub wilderness or acres of mono-culture.

I have little hope of converting any extreme vegans but what I do hope I can achieve is to re-assure people that you can continue to enjoy your steak dinner or lamb chops without worrying you are destroying the planet. Do your bit by buying locally produced meat from a farm you trust. If you want to, go and speak to your farmer or butcher and ask where the meat came from, how was it raised, what system was used. Most importantly though, enjoy the fantastic quality produce you can get whilst supporting your local economy and environment.

BREAK DOWN
Nov 19

Bailing dramas and Romantic Pizzas

We're well into the swing of the summer contracting now and have got through a good number of acres of both small bales and big rounds. However, the other day we ground to a halt with a baler break-down.

There was about 30 acres in front of us which we were hoping to get baled and wrapped in the day (a Sunday). I'd got about 15 bales into the first field with the wrapper following close behind when I noticed the baler stop picking up the grass. There was a big lump in one side of the pick-up so I thought maybe I'd just blocked the pick-ups. Hopped out, cleared the lump, got back in and started up... nothing! So I got out for a more detailed inspection and found a chain hanging down below one of the side panels. Hmmm... that's not normally like that!

A little more inspection revealed that a big double bearing supporting the sprocket for the pick-up drive chain had simply collapsed. Ah, that's not the sort of thing I can fix in 5 minutes and it'll need new parts (why do these things have to happen on a Sunday!).

Luckily the forecast was good for the next two days, but not the Wednesday. Right, lets get it down to the dealers first thing Monday morning for repair.

Platts Harris did a fantastic job of getting it stripped down, new parts sourced and fitted and the whole thing tested in little over 24 hours. So we were then back in action by lunchtime on Tuesday (having paid a rather painful four figure sized bill!) and racing to beat the weather which was due to break some time that night.

Hollie managed to get over early afternoon with the wrapper and set about chasing me round the fields! I think we managed to get finished some time around 11pm which in the scheme of things probably isn't that bad. My favourite memory of the day though was wrapping the final bale and then switching off the machines to eat pizzas (which had been delivered to the field) sitting on top of a bale, illuminated by moonlight. Very romantic!

We all know the contracting season can get somewhat hectic so I have to take this opportunity to thank everyone who puts up with me/us at this time of year. This is both my family, who might not see me until some horrible time of night, and the general public who are having to deal with a higher proportion of agricultural traffic on the roads than any other time of year. Everyone's understanding is much appreciated and we do our best to be as considerate as possible.

GEOFF THE BULL AND HIS POOLY FOOT
Nov 2019

I promised I'd write something up about Geoff and his foot problems so here goes.

We first noticed something was up towards the end of last summer when he went a bit lame. A common cause of lameness in cows is them getting a little stone lodged between the two halves of their hoof (between the toes), so we were making plans for how we were going to pen him up securely enough to safely lift his foot and have a look. However, by the next day he had become so much worse that it clearly wasn't just a stone. He wasn't able to put his foot down at all.

It was clear we had to get him home, if for no other reason than the fact that, not being able to move around he wouldn't be able to get enough food or water to sustain himself. So I took the trailer down to the field and backed it right up to where he was lying. Then ensued a rather dodgy game of persuading him to stand up and walk in without annoying him to the point where he decided to take it out on me! I think he must have realised we were trying to help though because he did his best to get into the trailer. There was just one dodgy moment where he lost his balance a bit and I thought he was going to collapse on top of me! We managed to get safely loaded though and get back to the barn at home.

It was clear by this point that it was going to require professional help so the vet was called. It was suspected that it was an abscess in his foot somewhere which, once you have located it, requires a bit of excavation to allow the poison to drain out, combined with a course of antibiotics. Unfortunately, in order to start messing around with his foot, we had to knock Geoff out - it's not like you can just ask him to hold still for a bit! A GA always carries risks with it but there's the added complication of trying to get everything finished before he starts waking up again and flailing his legs about. Luckily we got pretty much the whole job done before he started coming round.

However, we then had the course of antibiotics to administer which required a daily injection of drugs for about a week. As you can imagine, sticking a considerable sized needle into the backside of a bull doesn't always elicit a favourable response from him! So we worked out a system whereby Mum would distract him with food and then get a chain around his neck to encourage him not to walk off. Once that was done I could go in and get the injection done while staying ready to leap out of the way if necessary! Full credit to Geoff, he was really very well behaved and allowed us to do what we needed to with very little fuss really.

However, that didn't cure the problem. Actually there was absolutely no discernible difference. So the vet was recalled, another GA administered and more searching for the infection. This was followed with more antibiotics, which Geoff was starting to be less than impressed with. He must have had a backside like a dartboard by the time we were done!

Still no real difference but short of x-raying for broken bones (which was prohibitively expensive and doesn't really move you forwards because you can't do anything for a broken bone) there was not much else other than daily poulticing of his foot that we could do for him at this point. The noises of discomfort that he was making at the start of all this had stopped so we were fairly sure he wasn't in pain and he seemed happy with life generally.

So we decided we'd give him the winter to recover as he was inside now and wouldn't be going out again till spring anyway. After about 2 months inside and a small fortune in poultice bandages we started to convince ourselves that he was actually putting his foot down again. Gradually over the course of the rest of the winter he started to put his weight on it properly again and get back to pretty much full mobility.

There never was any evidence of an abscess bursting out but it must have been some sort of infection, not least because he still has a somewhat deformed foot. We are just happy that our patience paid off eventually and although it was a rather expensive excercise, we couldn't quite bring ourselves to give up on him.

He's been out again all this summer and seems to be back on full form so hopefully being a bit sentimental has paid off this time!!

LAMBING REVIEW
Nov 19

Lambing has pretty well come to a close now...

I have to say it’s been a better year than last year, primarily due to the weather (isn’t it always weather related with farmers?!) Last year we were battling through the beast from the east which made life very difficult, not least when we completely ran out of space for sheep indoors! This year was much more agreeable weather (only the odd snow shower) and things ran correspondingly smoothly.

The only minor hiccup was mum making an unscheduled trip to A&E! She had been feeding the Shropshire sheep a couple of weeks before the start of lambing and one of them crashed into her knee, dislocating the knee-cap. I always call them the hooligans because they can get really rough in their enthusiasm to get at the food and you really have to keep your wits about you.

Luckily nothing had been broken but some of the ligaments etc were pretty stretched so after having everything put back in place and thoroughly strapped down she was sent home with a set of crutches to hobble her way round the farm and continue to issue instructions to all who would listen!

Thankfully Rachel was able to take time off from her job with Redwings Horse Sanctuary to come home and help us out. She did a brilliant job and I think we’d have struggled to come without her. It’s just a shame that Redwings happens to be in furthest Norfolk so she can’t help more regularly.

As we finished lambing, the first of the calves was born, followed by the second a few hours later. I’m still unsure whether that is classed as good planning or not – it doesn’t allow us much time for rest and recovery! I have a feeling we might be a bit hit and miss with the calving this year. Reason being that at the end of last season Geoff, the bull, went very lame to the point where he could not walk at all. So I have a suspicion that those cows which came into season later on probably won’t be in calf. We’ll see, and I’ll write something up about Geoff when I can – he’s now back on all four feet and going well again.
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