Worth Getting Up For.
Natural Capital
There is a lot happening in the agricultural world at present, prompting almost daily articles in the press. I, like many farmers forget who I am talking to sometimes and often use jargon when discussing a certain topic. This theme was prompted by a discussion with one of my work experience students who asked what ‘Natural Capital’ was.
Natural Capital is a way of viewing the environment as a set of assets that benefit wider society, rather than any single individual or organisation. A good example can be seen on a dairy farm where changes to how they manage their on-farm slurry can improve groundwater quality. This in turn benefits water companies and the general population, not just the farm itself where the improvements take place.
It is difficult to put a value on the work done and the public goods generated by improving natural capital. This challenge makes natural capital difficult to understand in a farm business setting. Speaking from personal experience this makes it harder to justify investing in natural capital rather than other parts of the business. As a result of this, farmers have often been blamed for putting output and productivity first at the expense of the environment.
So where are we today. Natural capital is now the cornerstone of Government policy, incentivising farmers to increase or enhance natural capital. For farmers, it is important we realise there are two elements to natural capital. On one hand we have the hedgerows, trees, soil and biodiversity on the farm which we call the natural capital stock and on the other the ecosystem services, or operational bit which includes the carbon sequestration which our stock provides.
At Manor Farm we have been part of the Countryside Stewardship scheme for 20 years. This alone has helped us to increase and enhance what effectively used to be regarded as ‘free’ by nature and taken for granted. Now with the collaboration of neighbouring farmers we are doing this on landscape scale.
We are in the process of measuring our carbon footprint, this will help us understand where investment can be targeted to improve productivity in a sustainable way, as well as highlighting areas that may provide value to third parties in the form of carbon credits.
On any farm soil and water are vital assets or we don’t have a business. Both these assets have a value for the wider public because they are the foundations for wholesome food and clean drinking water, in the face of climate change both soil and water have to be managed even more carefully. As a result of this we have implemented crop rotations that reflect this. Thames Water are now collaborators with us in this goal further emphasising the bigger scale of our ambitions.
Spreading the Word.
Something to think about:
Farmers should use less antibiotics, but if your own kitten or dog is sick, go to the vet immediately and give them antibiotics and medicines.
Farmers should not import food but we regularly eat Couscous, Soy, Avocado, Bananas which must be imported into our country.
Farmers pollute drinking water with pesticides. But we shower daily with shampoo, wash medicines down the sink and swim in the pool with chlorine…
Farmers should need less pesticides, but we’re buying strawberries and asparagus in winter because we can’t wait for the season to come…
Farmers should keep as many cattle as they can produce themselves, but we’re bringing the cheaper piece of foreign meat into store because domestic is too expensive.
Farmers would need less or no pesticides and antibiotics if we would buy a curly carrot or apple with brown spots, but we would rather buy the cheaper and more beautiful product in the store.
Yes farmers should change everything… but we are buying more and more foreign products and that is very cheap.
No one cares how much antibiotics or pesticides have been put in where we have no influence on it!
No matter if you fly over the superfood on a plane and spray literally any chemistry on it!
After that, the treated food comes to us by plane or ship….
But we are aware of our ‘environment’
Not only the farmers have to change everything, but much more the consumers!
Let’s finally start with ourselves before we always teach others!
One thing you should never forget, farmers take care of your food, worldwide!
Everyone is responsible for a healthier world.
A piece of awareness can’t hurt.
Round Two of Virtual Farm Tours
Last summer Will did some virtual farm tours with schools. Beautifully organised by Jo Hatton of LEAF (Linking Environment and Farming). Will has just done another day of tours. Schools/colleges from Yorkshire, Brighton and South Africa. Loads of great questions from the sixth formers, fun and thought provoking for all.
Clarkson’s Farm, Trade Deals and Carbon Trading
Inspiration our news page come in many shapes and forms. It may be the time of year, the weather, the future or quite often a question from one of our guests. We have had a busy summer on the campsite and although restricted somewhat by Covid in our interactions there have been lots of questions. A lot is happening in the agricultural world and a lot of it in the public eye.
Thanks to Mr.Clarkson (Clarkson’s Farm on Amazon) the realities of managing a working farm have been brought to a new audience and you’d be hard pushed to find a farmer who didn’t relate to most of the trials Jeremy put himself through. Our guests were very disappointed I didn’t own a Lamborghini and I don’t have a Caleb telling me how to do it. Yes at times there was creative licence but Clarkson did try and portray what most farmers face and was open to the fact that as much as he enjoyed it ,if he didn’t have his extra income from his day job, things would be very tough. This allied to a recent comment I saw “A farm isn’t just a farmer’s workplace, it is his heart and soul”.
Many of the guests had read the reports on recent trade deals with Australia and while at present I do not feel too threatened by them, the precedent set will open the flood gates for other deals that could undermine British Agriculture completely. I appreciate deals like this could work both ways but farming in this country has many more hurdles to jump through that our Australian counterparts don’t, and this is without even touching on their advantages of scale. I’m sure this topic will crop up in future articles, but it is undermining British farmer’s confidence and their willingness to invest in their farming enterprises.
One topic that kept cropping up was carbon trading or offsetting. A few of our guests asked me whether I see our future on the farm as primarily being food producers or will we be sequestering carbon for those industries unable too? Thus offsetting their impact i.e the airline industry. Whilst I am by no means an expert on this subject I think it has along way to go before income is derided from the way I farm, rather than what I produce. We are already someway into our journey of farming in a more sympathetic way and now have an idea of our biodiversity gains but at present this is because I think it is right and the way I like to farm. Whether I will be able to make a living out of it remains to be seen. It was pointed out to me the other day that sequestering carbon will only really slow climate change so if we want to stop it or even reverse it we have to change the way we live or reduce the need to offset it, something for us all to think about.
For those wanting a good read on farming I thoroughly recommend Field Work: What land does to people and what people do to land, by Bella Bathurst.
Eco Warriers
When walking our livestock fields here is an interesting thing to look out for. ‘Dung beetles’. They help to keep our land cleaner as they break down sheep and cow dung which in turn helps reduce greenhouse emissions. So next time you walk our fields have a look at the cow pats and if they look like this our little black eco warriors are at work.
What do you Think a Farmer Looks Like?
Throughout a normal year I find myself talking to various groups of children whether guests on the campsite or classes of children. I wouldn’t call myself a natural by any means but with children it is all about keeping it simple.
To break the ice my first question is normally ‘What do YOU think a farmer looks like?’
This normally gets a good response with a good number of hands shooting into the air. Interestingly the answers are always the same – “really old”, “he wears a straw hat”, “always wears wellies”, “grumpy”, “checked shirt”, and my personal favourite, “hairy chest”. And whilst it should be noted that in many cases, they’re quite close to the mark with those descriptions (I confess to owning a few check shirts), it doesn’t really portray the way that we like to see ourselves as part of a modern dynamic and increasingly diverse agricultural industry.
But leaving aside the work we need to do in changing children’s perceptions of us, their answers do often lead me to ponder what the role of a 21st century farmer really is, and whether we’re in the midst of an identity crisis. My father who was born during the war in an era when the British public were still experiencing rationing has always known his role with absolute certainty – to produce as much food as he can, as efficiently as possible. This he has done successfully for his entire farming career, whilst been backed up by Government.
For most of my career, having been taught to farm in that way both at home and college and on other farms, I thought that was my role too. Why would I question it. In the UK we have the climate, the infrastructure, the technology and the expertise which many other countries do not have so we should be pushing on to produce as much as possible to feed ourselves and export any surplus. A simple business decision.
Now being older and hopefully wiser I have questioned whether I was right to follow this path and what is my role from here? You cannot turn back the clock, but what is the role of today’s farmer? Obviously it is to run a profitable business but we must also leave the land in better condition than we found it, and all this while making a positive contribution to reducing climate change.
All three of these aspirations require long term thinking and solutions, from individual farming families, from the wider agricultural industry, and perhaps most crucially of all, from policy makers. Because if we want those things, if we really value our rural communities and our planet and to help them survive and thrive, then we need to look at what’s working and what isn’t, seriously address the barriers we’re facing, and realise the grave consequences of both inaction and getting it wrong.
Time for Change
Changing weather patterns have been a feature for centuries but the last few years have been alarmingly difficult to manage from a farming perspective especially as the core business is struggling to pay its way.
With Brexit and changes in how agriculture is supported there is not a farmer in the country who is not having to look extremely hard at making their core business more resilient and in some cases the government is even proposing a way out completely.
Living in a small rural community like we do this has effects on us all. It is only 50yrs ago a significant percentage of the village population was directly connected to the farms within them. Over those years we have seen dramatic changes in the farms around us. In fact over 50% of the planning applications we receive in our parish revolve around change of use or diversification on our farms.
Pre 2018 over 62% of farms in the UK had diversified in some form or other and traditionally this involved adding value to a farming enterprise or offering accommodation. Being in the proximity of large populations has seen the commercial letting of farm buildings that has become the most common use in our immediate area. Why farmers diversify is a huge subject and one I will struggle to tackle in one article but what I am sure you will all agree it involves change and change is not necessarily popular with everyone.
With large landowners it is common for them to have an estate plan for which they can back up planning applications justifying the direction they are driving their businesses. Like a village design statement or Parish Plan this gives some direction to the community of the aspirations and changes that might happen in the future. This is not always easy on a smaller farm level.
We are seeing more pressure put on our rural areas with more development both in the form of housing and farm diversification. We as a community have seen our fair share of this pressure and rightly or wrongly any new application is now viewed with suspicion. This is understandable but perhaps if the understanding behind the changes were better communicated this might help.
Personally with farming on the cusp of its 4th Revolution and the emphasis on working with nature and looking after our soil I feel hugely invigorated about our farming future. As I have discussed in previous articles these changes could be vastly different especially if we are serious about climate change and keeping food prices at current levels. Whilst the industry weans itself off government support expect more diversification and at Manor Farm with these aspirations, we will have no choice but to diversify further to survive too.
Dogs in the Countryside.
For most of you who own dogs one of life’s little pleasures at present is the excuse to go for a dog walk and this pleasure hasn’t been wasted on a growing number during the pandemic. The boon in dog sales over the past year has seen more of us take on the responsibility of owning man’s best friend.
Rural areas have seen a huge increase in dog walkers and fundamentally this is to be welcomed but sadly it hasn’t all been plain walking. New statistics from rural insurers show that in 2020, the UK cost of dog attacks on livestock reached an estimated £1.3m – an overall increase of over 10%.
In our locality the incidents are fortunately few and far between. This could be due to the lack of livestock or the fact we have very responsible owners. In a recent survey of dog owners commissioned by NFU Mutual it was revealed that 64% are letting their pets roam free in the countryside, despite half of these owners admitting their dog doesn’t always come back when called.
Attacks are one thing but the damage caused from chasing of sheep at this time of year can have catastrophic consequences on the number of lambs born alive. Also evident in the report was that rather alarmingly, only 40% of the dog owners surveyed accepted that their pet could cause the injury or death of a farm animal only 33% saying they would report an attack taking place to police or a local farmer.
Historically the onus has been on countryside users to follow the countryside code but statistics show this is having little effect and there is now a movement to change the law meaning prosecutions and fines will be given to offenders. This is sad but so is the unbearable suffering of the animal, the anxiety caused to farmers and their families and lest we forget to the dog owners themselves on losing their dog.
As a livestock farmer I have always resisted plastering the countryside in signs hoping it is more welcoming and in fact most of the signs seen locally are more likely politely requesting you to keep off a grass margin. This brings me to gently remind everybody that as spring arrives, please do not forget our hedge line livestock as they too at this crucial time of year, do not respond well to a bit of dog worrying.
