Organic Duck's Nuffield Adventure

Team Farming

2011-06-10T14:41:00.000-07:00

I've been off on my travels again this week, a non stop tour of Wales, Cheshire, Oxfordshire and Reading. It was a great opportunity to catch up with old and new friends who all showed me great hospitality.
First stop was near Whitchurch with Linda and Brian who in the dim and distant past shared damp and grotty lodgings with me when at college. Linda was an AMBA and Brian completed a HND agriculture. After spending 10 years tractor driving they set up their own business with a digger and a little tractor building patios, horse rings, fencng and maintaining suermarket grounds. When their 3 girls were young Linda started as a child minder and now has a constant stream of children clients. Brian has a simple business plan, not going over the VAT limit (making 20% cheaper the other contractors), doing most of the work himself, not employing anybody and working very hard. Since he started he has never been short of work and together they have renovated an old farmhouse and have a smallholding of 6 acres where the children have ponies, ducks and chickens, they fatten a few pigs, sell some silage and have an enviable veg garden.
After meeting with fellow Nuffield Scholar Michael and buying a map we travelled to Pwllheli to visit Rhys, a grazing evangalist who runs a herd of 1000 cows. It just so happens that Rhys is also writing a nuffield report on Equity partnerships. Rhys farms in a share farm arrangement that is popular in New Zealand where the land owner takes a share of the risk and the milker has access to capital and borrowing. The key to Rhys system seemed to be the trust between the partners in the share arrangement and he seems to have found the right opportunity to use his attention to detail to produce some pretty impressive results. Michael is writing a grazing blog all about grass so if you are really interested I am sure he will write at length about our visit.
Next stop was Snowdon where Arwyn is farm manager for the National Trust on a farm that has much history and has a wild untamed beauty. Here farming is not just about the results but also about the local community and the environment, relying on subsidy payment to stay in profit, but providing employment to a team of skilled shepherds and farm workers. Arwyn heads and guides this team maintaining a landscape that people care passionately about.
After a brief stop at Chestnut meats where Marnie the goat lady fed us goat sausages, I visited another old college friend Mr Nurse. David is a first generation farmer who always wanted to milk cows, when his precollege boss wanted to retire he was offered the opportunity to become the tenant of 125 acres of prime Cheshire farmland. Buying the landlords 100 cows and equipment and taking on huge borrowings David has worked hard to pay back much of what he owed and has made a profit even in years when the milk price has poor. Again the system is nothing complicated, but by sheer determination and commitment it has worked. David works on his own, with occasonal partime help and a relief milker once a month. If you have milked cows or worked on a farm you will understand the strength of character this requires and I admire all David has achieved. David's lucky break has been belonging to a local co-op of dairy farmers that his landlord had been a founder member. This co-op uses its buying power to negiotiate feed and fertilizer prices, has regular bench marking amongst the members, farm walks and visits and even gives access to small loans for capital improvements.
After a brief stop in Oxfordshire to cuddle my beautiful new Nephew, I meet with George Dunn of the Tenants Farmers Association (TFA). The TFA was formed in 1981 by a group of farmers who felt that their interests were not being forcefully represented by existing bodies. The TFA is the only organisation dedicated to the agricultural tenanted sector and is the authentic voice on behalf of tenant farmers. The TFA lobbies at all levels of Government and gives professional advice to its members.
So then back to Devon where Nevil and the children have been getting ready for Open Farm Sunday. This mainly envolves Nevil and Elsa tidying up and the rest getting very excited about the opportunity to show people 'Their Farm'.
So a tour of different farms with one thing in common team work. The husband wife team, the business partnership, the mentoring support of a co-op, the help of a support organisation or the crazy family team I love so much at home. Maybe this could be one of the keys to a successful farm and business. I have a feeling that at last I am finding something to put in my Nuffield report!

French Shopping

2011-06-04T07:24:00.000-07:00

We have this myth amongst the farmers market traders that everyone in France buys at the market, French women all know how to cook and hygiene rules are non existent in France. I visited yet another market in Angers and saw piles of the local white asparagus that the market gardens around the city are famous for. Late wednesday morning there seemed to be plenty of people about and they seemed to be buying. Plenty of poultry and rabbit, vegetables, fish including live eels, local sables (biscuits) and fruit. Standards were a lot higher in this market with the square having electric sockets so the meat stalls all had impressive chillers. Didn't see any lamb or beef but there was plenty of pork and preserved pork products like rilletes and salamis. I even tried Kangaroo salami, but I'm pretty sure that wasn't local meat!

Having lunch with a group of lecturers from the college I quizzed them about where they shopped and as in the UK most bought from the supermarket, although they (like in the states) thought the idea of online shopping for fresh produce crazy. Some bought a weekly veg box and most were quite embarresed about their shopping habits. It seemed like it wasn't thought to be French not to buy at market, but their lifestyle (not the cost) were making it more convenient to do a one stop supermarket shop.Some of the markets had recognised this and there are now farmers markets on a sunday and more night markets that start as people are leaving work. On warm summer evenings I can see the appeal of the evening market and it might just be away of making them more accesiable, although a cold wet November night in Devon may not increase trade.
And the myth about Fench women cooking, why do you think they have Charcuterie shops and serve Confit and cassoulet.

*special point for a cheese maker from Devon, there was no parking charges so I had some money left to spend!

La Volaille preferee des Francais

2011-05-24T13:09:00.000-07:00

It's always good to see men digging holes and this time it was young farmer Oliver and his cousin that was trying to find the leaking irrigation pipe. As in the UK, France is very dry and the Sarthe region was already irrigating. Oliver is 21 and after completeing an Agricultural diploma has just started to farm with his parents (Marie-Armelle et Pascal LELIÈVRE) and has a 10% share in the family farming company. When another cousin and uncle had land for sale he managed to buy 20ha and rent an additional 30ha and this he has bought into the busines which now totals 180ha of wheat, rape, maize and sunflowers as well as a small herd of Limousin cattle to graze the river pastures and two houses of free range chickens (4000 per house 3 batches per year). Oliver hadn't taken up the government young farmer assistance to buy the land and grant scheme as he is hoping in the future that more land and maybe a house would be available nearby. Land in this area, like a warm Cambridgeshire, is around 3000 - 4000 euros per ha, much is irrigated but the farm owned very little equipment, relying on the machinery ring for everything except the tractor. Grain was all marketed through the co-op. The farm also had a Gite and a small B&B business. The same as most businesses I have visited, Pascal plans to get larger and specialise, Oliver is earning equity in the farm business while doing other work for a neighbouring relative to have an income to live on.

The chickens really interested me and I was expecting something exceptional as they have a protected geographical indication (PGI) . This is a EU legal definition of where they are produced and how, similar to the status Cornish pasties has recently gained. Label Rouge was developed for poultry through a collective, regional approach involving a region’s entire production sector, from poultry farmers to processing plants. The production of Label Rouge traditional poultry is thus deeply rooted in the French regions.To emphasize the importance of regional farming traditions, most Label Rouge poultry is identified by a PGI (Protected Geographic Indication), protected by a European patent. Currently there are 31 PGIs for poultry. They provide the “local touch” with a reassurance of guaranteed origin for those who eat the products and the promise of a special flavor that is very typical of each terroir.
The producers of “Loué” began to rear poultry under “Label Rouge” conditions in 1958. Actually, about 1000 farmers produce 28 millions of poultry and 160 millions of eggs per year and there are 150 different references of products from the whole carcasses to process products. It's not just chickens, but eggs, turkeys, ducks, geese and Guinea fowl all produced in an area near Le mans, spending some time free range, slow grown and fed local feed that has 80% cereal in. All the poultry are tagged for traceability, with a small metal tag applied at 4 weeks on the top of the wing. The chicken breeds can be all types including the funny naked neck birds and a bird similar to a hubbard. At Le Fresne they were grown to 90 days and free range for 7 or 8 weeks. they were in groups of 4,000 in fixed housing and had extensive ranges with good pasture cover. So pretty much exactly the same as the free range birds in the UK.
Asking a few french folk I met about Loué chicken it seemed a recognised brand that stood for quality and taste. I tasted a few as well and for a free range chicken they were pretty good, not anything exceptional with pretty much uniform taste on breast and legs (we strive for a differance between the white and dark meat). But the power of marketing is impressive with the Loué sign on farm gates and a great pride amoung the farmers that the regional chicken was the best, even driving down the motorway a sign anounces that you are entering the land of chicken and egg farmers.
In the UK, especially in the South West there has been a great revival of food provenance and interest in all things local. If We farmers could capture some of that French pride in what we are producing and market together maybe in future travelling along the M5 near Cullompton you would be greeted by a giant chicken or signs announcing that Devonshire really does produce the best poultry in the world.

A grande Ecole

2011-05-17T03:03:00.000-07:00

Back in the old days at Harper Adams we sometimes had French students join our course for a term or two to improve their English and learn how brillant our farming was. One of the first students to come was Maryse, a brave and intrepid adventurer at a time when relaionships between French and English farmers was not good. If I remember rightly she mostly felt cold, but her English improved and we had fun showing her England, despairing of proving English food was better when on a Harper canteen diet we had to go home to my Mum's cooking. A few years later Nevil and I attended her wedding, a traditional 3 day french celebration where the only other English was her former tutor, Richard Waldron. Fast forward to 1999 Richard found us out on our own farm and since then we have regularly had french students for their 'stage' or work experience. Richard is a bit of a legend at ESA Angers who sadly died a few years back, but has left his legacy at the college where all students are English word perfect to 'Puff the Magic Dragon'
It was great to finally visit the college and meet with Richard's replacement Claire and see where the students study. In true student fashion (!) I have cut and pasted all about the college in English. I'm actually feeling sightly guilty as our current student's exam this week wil be presenting 10 minutes in English about her farming experience in Devon...... now there's a Nuffield idea for the October conferance.

With its 2,630 students, the Groupe ESA is the largest institute of higher education for life sciences in France. It offers a wide range of courses in 10 major sectors of activity : farming, food, landscape management, environment, horticulture, viticulture, retailing, trade, agribusiness management and town & country planning.

Within the Groupe ESA, there are four institutions and four research laboratories :

A ‘grande école’, ESA

which awards undergraduate and post graduate degrees (including PhDs) and the typically French diploma ‘ingenieur’, which is traditionally a five year sandwich course punctuated with five work placements in industry, including a MSc type thesis.

A school of executive management, called ’Agricadre’

which offers a 2 year course in management and trade to students who have already done a minimum of two years university education ; it also offers the European Engineer Degree course in collaboration with Christeljike Agrarische Hogesschool, Dronten in the Netherlands.

An adult education centre for professional training offering

apprenticeship training, adult continuing education , and even distance learning (or correspondence courses).

A century old school :

ESA was founded in 1898 by Jesuits and representatives of the agricultural world. The school has been instrumental in the development of agriculture in northern and western France, the first region in Europe in the farming and the food industry sectors. Since the Jesuits left in 1970, the school has become a non-profitmaking organization managed by alumni, but closely controlled by the state.

Chambres D'Hotes

2011-05-14T15:41:00.000-07:00

I'm starting to like the French and France. It helps the weather is good, I'm staying in the Sarthe valley which is about 2 hours west of Rennes an hour north of Angers and fairly near Le Mans. Nobody else seem to be here on holiday and I have the pleasure of empty roads and cafes and although they don't like to admit it the tourism generally is quiet and like the UK a general slow down of the economy seems to having an effect. It is an area of 'cites de caracteres' (pretty villages), slow moving rivers and streams and huge abbeys.
I am starting to admire the French National pride in all things french and how they are convinced that their food is better. All the villages are clean and tidy with immaculate carparks (all free) with well signposted facilities, the southwest tourist industry could certainly learn a lot.

And french B&B I love it, remembering my brief career (5 years) running a B&B on the top of Exmoor how I love the idea of:

nobody expects a cooked breakfast, bread and jam is easy and when it goes stale just toast it or dip in your coffee.
nobody expects good coffee, cafe or lump it.
evening meals can be 5 courses by serving everything seperately.
saving on washing up, one knife and fork for every course is fine.
plenty of wine with the said meal and nobody will remember what you served.
Sunshine means happy guests after a week of wet cold days on Exmoor even the most hardy guest can feel disapointed.
more sunshine especially for drying that washing, try keeping sheets on the line on Exmoor let alone getting them dry.

Farming in France, might be tempted!

45 minutes to boil an egg.....

2011-05-01T12:14:00.000-07:00

It seemed like a good idea to agree to a 45 minutes talk about ducks and eggs to help make our stall at Exeter Food festival go well. After spending the week before making our new Duck confit and geting greatly stressed I find myself on Royal wedding day completely unprepared delivering a talk on keeping chickens when I had agreed to talk about eggs and duck eggs. Luckily it clashed with the balcony kiss and only the unromantic republicans of Exeter were there to hear me, not so on saturday when I had to abandon my stall with Elsa (age 12) in sole charge as Nevil got stuck in the Exeter football match traffic. This time the tent was full of eager chicken fanciers, but in true Nuffield fashion I managed to convince them that chicken keeping was easy and fun. I also managed a recipe as it was a food festival, effortlessly whipping up a lemon curd using duck eggs. It seemed to go down well and it was certainly memorable with first Dora turning up and then Elsa wandering through to tell me her Dad had finally arrived. Shouting to be heard over a circling helicopter (it was a Plymouth V Exeter match and bloodshed was expected ) I carefully answered questions and avoided anything too contraversial (like badgers and foxes).
So was the festival worth it? I hope so because it was a huge amount of work. The stand cost £325 and we most definately did not take enough to work on my 10% margin. But it was a great showcase for our New Confit product that had loads of postive response and a celebrity endorsement from Mark Hix. The Festival was fun, well managed and well advertised. It seemed to be more of a great day out with food than a food buying event. Being old and cynical should I expect anything better? Probably not, but I am still sure there should be a way to do both like I saw in the Hudson valley.
But is it farming? Probably not, but in a mad way I really enjoyed it, back meeting my foodie groupies and as well as the fellow stall holders that though they love to brag, do try and support each other with lots of bartering and good will.
And as for the Nuffield talk in October, it should be a piece a cake, 15 minutes and no recipe... easy!

This Little Piggy....

2011-03-27T14:17:00.000-07:00

At the age of three I made the decision to be a pig farmer. My family will tell you that when I start something it is hard to distract me and after briefly toying with the idea of an acting career, I spent the next 16 years plotting how. Living in the country next door to a small pig farm with pigs in pigsties and spending many hours helping out started my farming passion. We even had our own pig each year, that come slaughter day, my Mum worked her way through Jane Grigson's Charcuterie & French Pork Cookery making fantastic joints, sausages, brawn, bacon and Chitterlings.
My first proper farm job on my precollege year was a mixed arable, cattle and pig farm. But this was the time when pig farming was on it's knees and the pig enterprise was being wound down and eventually the housing was converted into livery stables. So I did some pig rearing but was definately distracted by big shiney tractors and combines. My desire to be a fulltime pig farmer finally disapeared during my first tour of Harper Adams Pig finishing house. High welfare, I am sure but to me keeping intelligent animals with no straw in semi darkness was not how I imagined my pig farm would be. This was in the old days and I can still remember being told by a very senior member of staff that outdoor pigs would never take off as who would want to work with them in the cold and wet.
Quite a few years later when we moved to Higher Fingle and the children decided their favourite food was sausages, we took the family allowance and bought a couple of in pig gilts and a trailer (that's the advantage of lots of children, lots of child benefit!) After the piglets were fattened, we sold some of the pork locally and that paid for all those sausages. After a few years of not losing money, a life style farmer (Devon is full of them) started rearing pigs nearby, having more time and energy to market the pork, quickly undercut our amateur enterprise and made it no longer cost effective to continue. Now they have retired there is now a gap in the market that we could look at filling. But this time the cost of food has risen by 40% and it now becomes a more risky enterprise.
Thinking about the great CSA's I saw in the states and not just how important the help with cashflow was, but the commitment by the customer to support the farmer and buy, I am hoping to try an experimental pig CSA. It works like this;

you buy a share in the pig, I am thinking about a 1/4 share being £75
this pays for the piglet, the food, the straw and any other whim a pampered free range pig will need
it also pays for the transport, butchery, including some sausages and packing ready for the freezer.
Nevil will promise to ensure that the pigs are kept in piggy luxury.
If you like you can come and scratch the pigs back, give it a name and help feed it.
then after 6 to 8 months you collect around 12-15kg of fantastic pork.
You can officially describe yourself as a pig farmer (ok only 1/4 of a pig but all new entrants start somewhere).

What I would like to be able to do is prove that a CSA can work for an ordinary farmer as a way of spreading the risk and helping with working capital. I have an idea that if landlords and banks can accept it as a way of financing part of a farm set up it could be possible that new entrants could be supported with everyone winning. It may only be a few pigs this time, but why not a small flock of sheep or laying hens. It could make the difference to making a small starter farm viable or not.
So anyone that wants to support my study and my greedy childrens sausage habit please get in touch soon and sign up for the best deal in the farm yard!
www.higherfingle.co.uk

Roll, Roll Up Part 2.

2011-03-13T15:42:00.001-07:00

After taking the budget option on our first night in India, the last 2 nights were wisely spent in the Diplomatic Enclave of New Delhi in a much grander hotel. Arriving at 1.00am after a long delayed flight from Raipur we were greeted by calm serenity, china teapots and flowers on our Pillows. Opting out of yet another long road trip to the Taj Mahal (i had enough of travel sickness) I at least had the chance to enjoy steak for breakfast. As Nevil was spending the morning back home at Hittisleigh market selling duck, Michael and I took a shopping trip round Delhi. Michael seemed to have an irrational fear of being kidnapped but feeling fairly confident it wouldn't be very lucrative we entrusted ourselves to a Kashmir taxi driver called Hans to give us a tour of Delhi. After a tour of mosques, forts and temples we took a bicycle rickshaw and bus ride to the spice market in Old Delhi. It didn't look much changed for a thousand years with sacks of spices being carried on shoulders and hand carts and deals being made around us in dingy narrow passages. Outside the wholesale area we started to barter, with Hans assistance, for some cardamons and other spices. I thought things were going well until a great shout and commotion started and stalls were quickly packed away off the pavement as the police were coming. After a lot more shouting from Hans we moved on to a happier stall holder to try again to buy what I am hoping is suitable for cooking some curries. The sheer number of people in Old Delhi packed in narrow streets and in complete chaos is hard to describe, suffice to say it was a long way from Hittisleigh market, population 118, as you could possibly be.
Hans seemed to know a lot of people who had things to sell and they all came from Kashmir. After escaping intact from Chandni Chowk we did a tour of these friends including Cheap John the carpet man and various bazaars. Luckily for me they all seemed more interested in selling Michael things, so I could sit back and be amazed at the technique. Everywhere we went we were treated with great hospitality, invited to sit and drink tea or water while goods were displayed with great dexterity. Michael got quite excited about Cheap John's carpets which were quite beautiful, especially the way they twirled them across floor, how I wish I could make duck buying so exciting. They all seemed quite puzzled why two people staying at such an expensive hotel should keep insisting we couldn't afford anything bar a t shirt, but we left promising to return when we had made our fortune.

So that is it, finally I have blogged about my trip, the longest time in 22 years I have spent away from Nevil and from any of my children. A trip of highs and lows but all amazing discoveries. I am still trying to work out what I have seen and how it relates to farming in the UK. I have finally understood the problems with water usage and the dependence on an unreliable climate. I have been disturbed by the reckless attitude to hygiene and the impact that has especially on the children. I have thought deeply about poverty and equality and I'm still trying to make sense of it. But most of all I have a sense of wanting to know more, to make a difference however small and a gratitude that I live in a country where my children, especially my daughters have a choice.

Raipur and some chickens at last.

2011-03-01T07:40:00.000-08:00

Raipur,capital of the state of Chattisgarh somewhere in the middle of India, nowhere in my guide book, but from the adverts at the airport a very important place for concrete and steel. India seems to be built of concrete, all successful businesses seem to have a cement division (along with power station and hotels) and much of India seems to be in the process of being built or falling down. We were here to travel about one and half hours north (how far I don't know, could have been 20 miles with the hair raising traffic) to visit Mr Bahadur Ali and his impressive ABIS group. This business started with a broiler unit of 10,000 birds in 1985 and now rears 2.5 million broilers per cycle with 7 cycles a year, 0.1 million layers and a 250,000 breeder flock. A fully integrated business ABIS includes a large feed mill producing feeds for poultry, cattle, pet food and fish feed as well as soya oil extraction plant.
We looked around the mill which surprisingly meets ISO 9000 standards and then looked at yet another large intensive dairy. This one was a remarkable in the fact the cows were the cleanest we saw with teams of people cleaning up constantly with a broom and shovel and very little mechanisation. It also boasted one of only three rotary palours in India.
95% of the chickens produced by ABIS are sold in the wet market, that is they are transported live to the shop and then killed as the customer buys them. Apparently the costs would be 4 rupees to process in a abattoir and just 1 rupee to kill in the shop (with an exchange rate of around 70 rupees:£). This processing also gets round the unreliable electricity supply and the lack of investment in any sort of refrigerated distribution chain. ABIS group has 160 retail units selling just chicken and eggs and also distributes milk and ghee to small shops.
We had tea with Mr Ali and heard nuggets like 'luck, it is all' and about 'sustaining power' as well as hearing how they plan to keep expanding as the market for both poultry meat and milk increases. He is very aware of new market opportunities and is looking at building an abattoir in 2015/2016 to be able to supply the likes of KFC and Freshgo supermarket.
An impressive business, but one i found quite scary for the disregard of safety and hygiene. With the cheap labour availability, cheap building materials and the Indian 'anything is possible attitude,' a large abattoir would have processing costs way below the biggest UK plants. Inexpensive protein from an unsubsidised poultry industry helped transform the post war diet in the UK, this is happening in India and the appetite in a previously vegetarian society is huge. I came away thinking about when they had fed the 1.2 billion Indians would they turn to exports, maybe another reason not to eat at fast food chicken outlets.
So that's Raipur, cement, steel and chickens....

Camel Poo Paper, Wool and Ice Cream

2011-02-26T15:31:00.000-08:00

The trips to see sheep and camels were hosted by Ilse Koehler-Rollefson, and Hanwant Singh Rathore of the League for Pastoral Peoples and Endogenous Livestock Developement

The LPP'S (for short) believes in helping from within the community and much work is done to improve the welfare and health of the livestock as well as helping the communities fight for their rights to maintain their traditional ways of life. In a country that has huge potential and ability for intensive production and with a government that sees food production as a priority the traditional livestock farmers are struggling to survive. LPP's is working on developing new markets for novel products such as camel milk ice cream, camel wool and camel poo paper. These added value products also creates jobs for the local women, especially widows in isolated villages.

Ilsa and Hanwant not only gave up their time to show us around but also cooked us a wonderful meal. I felt honoured to meet two people that cared for the pastoral people enough to try and improve their lives.
The following video, more professionally done than my efforts, gives a really good overview of what their project is achieving.

Breakfast with Camel Herders

2011-02-22T14:16:00.000-08:00

For me this was a really special part of our trip. After an early start and a bumpy ride across the hills we collected a vet from an isolated village and met up with some more Raika herders. This group herded camels, traditionally much valued in this area for their ability to survive the harsh desert conditions. Camel herding has been in sharp decline lately with 50% of the national herd disappearing in the last few years. Pressure from an increase in irrigated agriculture (which is government supported), development and creation of wildlife reserves has meant that traditional grazing land is being lost. The herders are away from their villages for months at a time and move from farm to farm, grazing the sparse vegetation and the trees. The farmers give them food and water and in return they get their field fertilized. The camel milk is good stuff, slightly salty tasting and it's meant to be healthy as well as TB free. Each year there are great camel fairs where surplus stock are sold. A hard life and one that the young Raiki boys do not want to follow, but to me a travel dream of sipping hot sweet tea and camel milk, as the sun rose in a setting that felt it hadn't changed in a thousand years.

Here's another wonky video to give you an idea how noisy those camels were, apparently they were hungry and ready to move on. Each one was hobbled in a different way to stop them wandering off and had a brand mark on their faces or neck to identify them.

New friends in Rajasthan.

2011-02-15T05:29:00.000-08:00

This is Selina, my new friend, with her sister. Selina I guess is around the same age as Elsa and is great at carrying water on her head. She is part of the Raika people near Ranakapur in the Aravalli hills in central Rajasthan, one of a Hindu caste that are livestock grazers. We were lucky to be invited along to their sheep shearing party when everyone gets together to shear, chat and make the work go quicker. Sheep grazing here is very extensive and the men herd the sheep on 'the forest' during the day bringing them back to stone and brushwood yards during the evenings. There doesn't seem to be any grass at this time of the year but they cut branches which the sheep seem happy with. Flock size is small, lambing is about 80% and the native breed is Boti. This traditional way of life is under threat from development on the land and locally the creation of a wildlife reserve, but sheep prices are good ( the lambs are sold onto Muslim traders). Housing is basic and the water is fetched from the village pump, although most villagers seemed to have electricity. The sari's were colourful and the women although shy seemed happy. Local projects encouraging the women out of their homes to meet and play games has helped to educate and empower the women who traditionally have led secluded lifes in isolated villages. These changes has meant that more young girls are educated and the future looks to have more opportunity for my new friend, but it is still a slow change and when I think of the aspirations of my girls at home and that of a Raika girl I realise how important equality is.

Here is a special video taken of the sheep shearing by one of my many new friends, anywhere I go the children love to take the pictures and then look at them.

Retreating to the Punjab

2011-02-12T05:19:00.000-08:00

After a day of traveling we arrive in India. India being such a vast country means to see as much as possible we need to take lots of internal flights which have required a great deal of organising (not mine but thanks to Michael and Tony). First stop is the Punjab, staying in the garden city of Chandigarh, which was designed in kilometre blocks with green spaces and trees, but now was very overcrowded. Leaving the city we travelled to Deep Roots Rural Retreat, another type of B&B with the enterprising owner. The history of Punjab region is troubled, the partioning of India and the land capping policies in 1947 means that farms are small. With a growing population the pressure on land for development and agriculture means the land price is huge. Small blocks of land to remain viable are often farmed in family groups. Punjab has an enviable climate with a hot wet summer and a warm dry winter, with irrigation the main crops are rice in the wet season followed by wheat in the dry. The state produces over 50% of India's cereal crops on only just 2% of the agricultural land. Many Innovative farmers are recognising that irrigation is going to become difficult with wells needing to dug deeper. Mr Harinder Signh is such a farmer and is investing in expanding his dairy cows to 400 cows. He is part of a group called Progressive Dairy Farmers Association that have the aim of 5 dairy farms per village. The Cows are kept in open yards and fed fresh fodder that comes from his surronding fields, this included 3 crops of maize a year, but no grass.

On the second day we drove north to Ludhiana to meet Dr Sidhu who Manages Macro Dairy Ventures Private Ltd who produce and market Tru Milk a premium milk poduct that selling point is that it is only milked by machine. Here they had HAACP's and were making a big effort to ensure a safe product. The Company is owned by a local legislator and has iniated a project to empower local women to earn money. Around 1000 ladies purchase 5 cows each, these are kept in the companies herd and milk in the companies palour. 5 ladies are in each self help group and work a 4 hour shift a day looking after 100 cows and 1 day off per week. They are then paid the raw milk price with deductions for feed, insurance and pay back the loans for the cows. The minimum payment they will earn is a guaranteed 2400 rupees, the average lactations should be 4 with 4000l per lactation. They also have the profit from the sale of cull cow and the calf. These ladies would not have the opportunity of a job, certainly would not be able to access a loan or banking facilities and definitely have no land.

After a hair raising ride back to Deep Roots we looked round their potential solution to water shortage. This was growing vegtables, but not just on a small scale but looking to use a cooperative of small growers and put in a pack house that washes with chlorinated water. Building a modern refrigerated supply chain and selling into small shops they look set for a great business. India has no dominant supermarket and the supply chain for veg still uses ox cart and like the dairy industry there seems to be an exciting opportunity to modernise food production and to help smaller farmers to move their businesses forward.

Deep Roots was perfect hospitality with fantastic food as well as fascinating farming information.

Night In Bangkok

2011-02-10T20:00:00.000-08:00

Another bus trip, this time a bit more civilised from the border upto Bangkok a city of 10 millon people. Having our view of Thailand coloured by Lane the taxi driver saying that they call the Cambodians dogs, we drove through large sugar cane fields, rice fields and Rubber plantations. Field size was much larger, there was mechanisation, cars and lorries. Farming seemed modern and there has been a 22% increase in the export value of agricultural products in the last year.
Could this be the future for Cambodia? Similar land, weather and positioning, if the infrastructure was mended, when large farms are created by the Chinese it may be create a wealthy farming economy. Is that a bad thing industralising those subsistance farms? It would create cheap food, jobs and allow the country to grow. The sad reality seems to be that it will happen, although the Cambodians seem to have a strong sense of identity that they are trying to preserve. Idealistically I would like to see the country be allowed to grow and mend itself, but too much interest is being shown from the developed world and although Cambodia has very little in the way of minerals it has a rich source of timber and soils.
We learnt of the great poverty of the countryside that is being ignored, the need for education in a country where a school teacher earns less than a factory worker ($60/month for the teacher $80 for the factory) and the ability of a people to survive the most horrific things and be grateful that they have a second life. Most of all I left remembering the smiles and happines of the children that have so little but are the future of this fantastic country.

Crab Shack

2011-02-10T19:08:00.000-08:00

This post is solely to make you all jealous that I am working so hard. Especially you Henry when I tell you about the prawns and squid on the beach BBQ and the warm sea. No surf but great swimming, just my type of day out.

Up the Jungle

2011-02-10T18:15:00.000-08:00

Lonely Planet describes Krong Koh Kong as a wild west frontier town, full of smugglers and dodgy hotels. Fortunately with Malcolm, the Welsh owner of 'Fat Sams bar' to guide us,we found a charming town full of entrepreneurs. As with everywhere else there was moto and tuk tuk chaos, a strip of tarmac for road and dubious drainage. Not being able to avoid farm visits any longer, we took a boat and had a trip up river into the mangrove forest on the southern edge of the Cardamon mountains. Taking a random selection of Malcolm's friends and guided by Noy we followed the jungle paths and saw small farms producing fruit, sugar cane, lemon grass (50 cents/kg) and Sandlewood. One progressive farmer was growing 4 ha of water melons, all without irrigation just relying on the heavy forest dews. We saw a lot of hammocks and mosquitoes but not much bird life, rumour has it that all the birds have been eaten and after trying the local spider delicacies at Skoun i can quite believe it.

The forest seemed a good place to farm, far from the noise of tuk tuks and moto's and with plenty of fruit and nuts to harvest. In the Pol Pot era the jungle was a place that Khmer Rouge didn't go and many Cambodian's fled to the jungle to hide. Taking produce to market was a slow boat trip, Noy told us how the village we visited was innovative and good at their marketing.

Noy farms 5 ha's and told us how

he made sure he had 'hard papers' to prove ownership, he was proud to tell us that since buying the land 4 years ago he had improved the land and his yields of rice had increased. He was positive that farming had a future in Cambodia, but was worried about the misuse of sprays and fertilizers in a ecosystem that he was passionate about. When pressed why he farmed he eloquently explained the need to belong after spending his first 12 years in a refugee camp eating rice and dried fish. Owning and farming a piece of his homeland gave respect, security and freedom. Innovative, young and positive but realistic that he was only just starting to make a success of the farm. Facing the familiar problems of lack of capital, he seemed to have the resilience that we saw in the Cambodian people to survive and enjoy live as it happens.

After such thirsty farm visits the rest of the day revolved round paddy's bar where the toilets are unmentionable but the food is excellent (try the noodles they are amazing), I began to think that Cambodian farming may be more fun than we first thought.

Cambodian B&B

2011-02-10T07:09:00.000-08:00

This is Kheang who, with her young family and American husband Don, runs Rama Home stay, a bit like a Farm house B&B but with a special Cambodian twist. After spending the day on the bus, I missed the 3 hour walk around the local farms and villages, but after an excellent meal of tomato salad, steamed rice and a Cambodian curry We spent some time talking with her mother who grows rice and lotus. The life of a rice farmer on 4 ha is incredibly hard, with back breaking work and long hours for only a subsistance living. If she was lucky, when yield and price was on her side, she could pay back the loan taken out at the beginning of the season, feed herself and have enough to save a little. This scenario was similar to our own small family farms in the UK, but we don't starve if our crops fail, subsidies and tax credits mean that nobody needs to go hungary. So similar to farmers everywhere but so different as conversation turned to the Pol Pot era. I found it quite overwhelming to talk to a lovely educated women that was the same age to myself but at the age of 9 had been taken from her family to work on dam building by the Khmer Rouge and grew up in the years of war and famine. She believes that the only hope for Cambodia is education, but in the countryside where most still have no electricity, education and healthcare is poor. Hygiene practices are non existent and excess to good healthcare is unaffordable. A traditional midwife can be paid in rice, but until recently there was no transport to get to the NGO funded medical centres that allows a women a clean and safe childbirth. The women want to improve their lives but until they have the right facilitators on the ground not much changes, with the provision of money to pay to get to and from the hospital complications at childbirth have improved, while still allowing the women to return home and carry out the traditional customs.

Talk also centred on the worry about the land Concessions, excitement about affording a hand tractor to make live easier and the price of chickens (it's 1500 riel per kg and that was because it was just before chinese new year but the chicken are only around 1kg). Much interest was shown in how you could keep sheep with fences and not needing to herd them daily and amazement over the green fields in my pictures of Devon.

After a night in a shed on stilts and a wash with a bucket, we breakfasted on traditional rice porridge and cambodian pastries before a long taxi drive to Koh Kong. A great stay with a lovely family and if anyone is passing I left my phone there and with no reliable postal service it may need to wait until some one returns.

On the Buses.

2011-02-03T14:39:00.001-08:00

On my list of things to do to be a traveller is a train ride across India, but as my travelling companions are not so keen and time is short it looks like I won't tick the box this time. To make up for this, although the taxi's are very cheap I opted to take the bus from Siem Reape to our next desination near Kampong Cham. Asking around came up with a time of everything from 3 hours to 6 hours and a lot of shaking heads about where it was and if it was worth going to. Always keen to please the bus was defiantely booked, you can have a 7.30am, 8.30am or 9.30am. Being on holiday it seemed a good idea to book the 9.30 and after a bit of confusion as the hotel had run out of tickets the bus arrived at 9.30. After a trip round Siem Reape we then arrived at the bus station where the 9.30 bus became the 10.30 bus that left at 11.10, loaded with sacks of fertilizer (I think), furniture and many children. After a stop for diesal we were off and I was congratulating myself on taking the scenic route, after many stops for water for the engine, the driver to buy sunglasses and dropping of sacks of various produce we stopped for lunch. This was possibly the dirtiest lunch stop with plastic everywhere. In the 'scare the tourist silly so they think it's a lonely planet' guide book it suggests that if you get took short don't leave the grass verge in case there are landmines and the cambodians certainly take this seriously. Even I declined to try any lunch. We finally banged and bumped into Kampong Cham around 4pm and gratefully relaxed in the comfort of a tuk tuk, that if driven flat out is better than any air conditioning. Too late to have the farm visit planned but having seen a snapshot of rural cambodia with a karyoke soundtrack all for $8. (To find out about cambodian rice farming see the Farming Ladder blog).

So what about the rubbish, it was everywhere. Plastic and glass bottles have a value to collect, they use very little tins, paper can be used for compost but plastic bags seem to be the favourite way of wrapping anything from cooked rice porridge (breakfast) to juices drunk with a straw. It would certainly improve the enviroment if a value could be found for carrier bags or if the plastic would compost.

For a second time I was amazed by the patience of the people that sat without complaining on the bus and still managed to keep smiling, i'm not sure that I was.

The orphan band

2011-02-02T08:30:00.000-08:00

Angkor and Siem Reape are full of children, they are filthy dirty ( so is everything with a layer of red dust) but generally a happy bunch. In a country where 50% of the population is under 25 the mothers are only children to an old lady like me. Visiting a traditional Cambodian silk weaving workshop the children were with the mothers as they worked the little ones asleep in hammocks, the older ones playing on the floor, perfect childcare. There are many orphans and street children and these sell postcards, books, scarves and water around the entrance to the temples. This could be quite unnerving but they are so happy and love to practice their English that you can't help buying everything. When a 9 year old can tell you the population of London and the last 6 Prime ministers you just have to admire their sales technique. Since then we have found that the children just love to talk even if they have nothing to sell and today i have realised that if you keep saying hello enough you just can't help smiling. Maybe that is why Cambodia has survived such terrible atrocities without.
The Orphans and land mine victims also have some great bands around the Temples and here due to the wonders of technology is a brief sample.

Angkor Temples

2011-02-02T02:01:00.000-08:00

Angkor is the earthly representation of Mt Meru, the mt Olympus of the Hindu faith and home of ancient gods. The Cambodian God kings for 600 years between AD802 to 1432, each tried to better there ancestors in the size, scale and symmetry of their temples, culminating in Angkor Wat the biggest religous building in the world. When London boasted 30,000 people Angkor had population of 1 millon. A civilization that traded rice and built huge irrigation systems that created wealth. It is an amazing sight, not just the number and size of temples but all the walls have intricate carvings recording the legends of first the Hindu then later the Buddist faiths. Carvings of the struggles of the Khmer people against their neighbours give a idea of the history, but Angkor still holds its secrets as their are no written records as it was thought palm leaf would have been used and this disintigrates with age.
Angkor is a great inspiration and pride for the people of Cambodia a nation that was once so great, has suffered so much and now has so little.
Not much farming but certainly a sight worth seeing.

Crocs and tuk tuk's

2011-01-31T16:49:00.000-08:00

Cambodia is amazing place and keeping in theme with the laidback nature here is just a post of pictures from my first day visiting Siem Reap, a day of tuk tuk rides, crocodile farm and amazing markets.

Roll Up, Roll Up!

2011-01-06T02:50:00.000-08:00

I have to admit it, I quite like farmers market. Not that I don't moan each week when I load up the car and leave kids still in their pyjamas. I like meeting customers, I like it when we sell lots and bring home piles of cash and I love being able to buy lots of fantastic food produced in Devon. I am not so keen when it's freezing cold and customers stay away, but you can't have it all.
Back before Elsa was born, we were working for an organic vegetable farm in Somerset and we were involved with the first English farmers market in Bath. Growing organic vegetables for the supermarket is a very tricky business, especially in a time when the big stores were just feeling their way with organic fresh produce. Week after week the reject rate varied widely and much produce was not acceptable for their standards. The first market, it was set up by an American lady with help from Bath council, we took £600 in a morning, paying a stall fee of £20 and selling mainly 50p cabbages that were out grades from those supermarkets. I think that must have been the high point of my market trading career!
Fast forward a few years and now Farmers markets are across the country, run very professionally and mainly a lot more than £20 to attend. But I can't help feeling that excitement has gone and it's not just because I'm getting old and cynical. Nowadays, if you pay £30 for a stall I would hope that the stall charge would be 10% of your takings, unfortunately food markets are suffering in the recession and often the cost of the stall will work out more than 10% and that is before you taking in the farmers labour standing all day trying to sell.
During my fab USA trip in September I had the chance to help Heidi at a local farmers market and at the Hudson valley Garlic Festival. The farmers market was organised by local farmers and was every Wednesday from June through to October. The pitch was $125 for the season, which works out around $6.25 a week (about £4). So although the labour cost was the same the pitch price is considerable less. I also visited an exciting busy market in New York with a wide range of exotic produce of great quality, even here the pitches were paid per season and were only equivalent to around £20 per week. During September and October there are a number of garlic festivals around the states. At Hudson Valley there 47,000 visitors in two days and a large 3m by 3m pitch cost just $125, selling Garlic Vinegar From The Josie Porter Farm I estimate the stall price was around 2.5% of the takings.
At the moment we are looking at events we are planning to attend in 2011, Exeter food Festival is a great fun event, with a footfall of 15,000 the a stand of 3m by 2.5m is £380. So to match Heidi's day out I need to sell £15000. Well it may be good fun, but on past experience I will struggle to sell that much and it's not just me. Asking around there is quite a bit of disappointment in the direct selling market, customers feel that the products should be cheaper but sellers costs are escalating. So how do they keep those costs down in the states? Well mainly by keeping the event companies out. Garlic festivals are run by groups of farmers that manage to make a small profit for efforts. In the UK there seems to be an industry running food festivals and markets then suddenly it is hardly better than selling to the supermarkets as yet another middleman makes a profit out the producer.
So hurrah the worm seems to be turning, (i hope) there are a number of festivals being organised by producers for producers, one being Eat The Devon Way at Dingle Steam Village, at only £60 for two days a successful event seems more achievable, I hope that customers will show their support.
So where else are we selling? Our local community produce markets really are the most fun. Just 2 hours from 10am to 12, all within 5 miles of home and at £4 per table which goes towards local funds it is a pleasant morning out that also generates great local sales. On a good day the stall costs are around 3.5% to 4% of the takings but as the money is going back into my community I am more than happy to pay. Mind you most of the profit is spent on Teign valley Bread,delicious local cheese, Farmer Luxton bacon, Jill's chocolate tiffin and of course bacon sandwiches. What better way to find out the local gossip, teach the kids how to count the change and get feedback when people tell you how much they have enjoyed their meat the previous month.
So for 2011 I'm booking up the festivals and markets, forgetting the supermarkets and not so ethical organic box schemes and going back to re find that excitement of selling good produce to an appreciative customer, Roll up Roll up.

Edinburgh to Cheriton Bishop

2010-11-11T01:15:00.000-08:00

In the last week there has been two meetings, in two countries with two totally different sets of views on farming and land use.
The 2010 Nuffield Farming Conference held in Edinburgh at a nice hotel, where the great and good of agriculture listened to the 2009 scholars presentations of their findings. Mostly these were very interesting, some were outstanding presentations by inspiring individuals. There was some controversy, mostly from the south west which seems to embrace alternative ideas, and plenty of discussion. I felt a little disappointed with the food chain talks, where we have heard it before about getting closer to the consumer and telling the story. My feeling are the supermarkets are even telling producers stories now, so what is next? The inspiring stuff is on the green energy, peak oil and alternative crops like algae and grain maize. These were scholars that had looked outside the box and were acting on what they saw with conviction, exciting times! Reports on the talks are available from the Nuffield website or if they not there get hold of Mr Stones, they are worth reading.
Of course I was there not just to enjoy but to find out what will be required of me next year and I'm certainly have some work to do.
Cheriton Bishop village hall with no heating and 16 people was the venue of the second meeting to watch the screening of Winstanley a 1975 film about the digger movement in 1649. Winstanley was a dreamer that tried to make his vision a reality by growing crops and living on St Georges hill which was common land. It was a vision that came from poverty and great injustices. the generally theme is that all land should be free and should be there for all to share. After a lot of hardship and pretty bad behaviour of both the local landowners and local peasants they were finally dispersed. Although they had a rough time with crops being damaged, they nearly starved as their crops were not sufficient alone and they did not want to trade to make sure they had enough food for the winter.
The discussion afterwards was a mixed group, not many humble peasants but plenty of anti farmer feeling. Ideas discussed was how the single farm payment has made land too expensive and farmers to rich, how anyone should be allowed to build on land if they were low impact living, how you could live on very few acres, that we are born with the skills to farm or if not we should be teaching sustainable living. I did try and put in a good word for council farms especially Devon, but I felt a little outnumbered. To close the evening we sang The World Turned Upside Down my favourite verse being:

We come in Peace, they said, to dig and sow
We come to work the lands in common and make the waste ground grow
This earth divided we will make whole
So it may be a common treasury for all

Strong stuff, but if peak oil chaos that is predicted does occur, are we going to be in such times that radical solutions will be required?
Part from my Sister in law (and Jakki won't mind me saying that!) must people have an interest and affinity with the land and nature. They are finding out where there food is from and many dream of moving to the country and having animals. Most see capital and availability of land as the biggest barrier. Many lack courage to live in a yurt, but here in the South West we have many rich peasants buying up the small farms to live their dream.
Farming has two options; to see this as a threat, or as an opportunity to harness those dreamers and help them to farm.
Maybe in the next year I can come up with a talk that keeps up the South West's alternative reputation.
16 + the amiss 7 + Michael Blanche NfSch = nearly a revolution. Any one like to join (no need to be a peasant)

Vegging In Stroud

2010-10-30T00:07:00.000-07:00

CSA farmer Mark

Many years ago as a student at a very traditional agricultural college, I went to an meeting of an organic group somewhere near Cirencester. This was in a time when organic farming was most definitely not considered real farming, but also when I had been working on a farm that had been hit by the lead in milk scandal where contaminated feed meant pints of milk had to be tipped down the drain, calves couldn't be sold and a group of farmers in the South West suffered badly through no fault of their own. As a naive youngster I could not understand how you could feed concentrates to an animal and not know what was in the bag, There seemed to be no thought that it would have a direct link to the food that you were eating. The meeting was my first realisation that farming did not have to be as prescribed by ADAS and a more sustainable future was the vision of a group of mainly young enthusiastic farmers and growers. It was also the first farmer meeting that I had been to that had lots of women and even tiny babies. People in the room were not waiting for their lunch and dozing in their chairs, but were buzzing with energy and ideas.
After leaving college I worked with Helen Browning who started to convert her farm from a successful intensive barley farm where her Dad had make serious money to a risky mixed organic set up with livestock enterprises that had no market. Not good business idea but a vision that luckily did stack up and although the farm has had to get a lot more focused and efficient, one that is still successful today. The first years of the organic vision were full of bold decisions and having a go to see if it worked. Some of the people have dropped by the wayside but many of the first new pioneers in the early 1990's before organic conversion grants are still surviving.
This type of farming was a natural home for me, not being concerned for figures but recognising a system that gave us an opportunity to farm by taking risks and connecting with the consumer. It has been great, but the supermarket dominance has hit the organic sector, driving down prices and changing people's perceptions. In the last year organic poultry sales are down 40%,(ours are not that bad thankfully) and increasing regulation in the food industry have driven our costs up.
So what next? Now old and cynical I have been enthused with my visits to CSA's in America where having no subsidy support has given a hunger to make something work. In the UK many CSA's are starting and a lot have had very considerable support from local food grants and other agencies.
Yesterday I went to Hawkswood College to Stroud CSA to an event run by the Soil Association, There was no babies but again that same enthusiasm for something new that made me feel CSA's definitely have a future.
It was a great lunch, well presented talks and a visit to the farm. It gave me a chance to learn about Teikei (CSA) from a visiting group of Japanese farmers. One farmer was growing 1 acre of veg and 2 acres of rice as a Teikei. His produce was delivered by the very efficient Japanese delivery systems up to an hour from his farm and as bought mainly on taste and quality. He had the same concerns: was there anything for the children that wanted to farm, consumers in a recession and price of land. Teikei is well established in Japan and has been going since 1970's with now over 1000 farms.
We also learnt how the Stroud CSA, that started in 2002, worked and that it is making a small profit each year even after paying a reasonable wage to the 2 growers (Better than most 4o acre farms).
We discussed lots of different options for financing and legal structures. Luckily the Soil Association have done the ground work and have a project officers, funded by the lottery, that will help setting up schemes and will provide templates for membership and finances. These are all available on the Soil Association Website, but if you were contemplating a CSA I would recommend a help from the very professional and enthusiastic Kirstin or Jade that seem to be the kind of girls that would make things happen.

And the main thing I learned, CSA's are all different and its a completely vague term that can cover all sorts of project and definitely not just organic, but the aims are to provide a fair return and secure market for farmers, even the most hardened conventional farmer wouldn't disagree with that.
Cattle for meat sales at CSA

Child labour scandal in Devon

2010-10-27T23:55:00.000-07:00

It's a busy time of year at Higher Fingle, but then it is pretty busy all the time. Nevil is feeling his age and as I keep going off on jolly Nuffield jaunts, we took the decision back in August to employ a more permanent farm worker. Already we have a few workers that are in the butchery and employing people is not a skill that we have found easy. The paperwork and regulations are cumbersome and the responsibility for these workers and their needs takes a lot of time and energy. I think we are fair employers and treat them with more respect than many jobs that I have had, but employing is a serious step that doesn't just have consequences for one life but maybe a whole family.
Previously we have had self employed farm workers that although are more flexible they have been poorly skilled and unreliable, but had the advantage that you only paid for when you needed them and We have had French agricultural students which have been great at times but now come with very little agricultural knowledge and require a great deal of supervision.The problem is that on a small farm you don't really need and can't really afford a full time worker but there are times that you really do need some help. Of course in the old days the children where kept off school at peak times to help out and it is very tempting as Elsa at twelve is a lot more useful then recent students. Fortunately there are now rules to prevent child labour so I meet up with Sandra who runs a project called Moor Skills. This project was set up as it was recognised that Dartmoor needs farmers and farm workers with unique traditional skills that were being lost. How it works is a group of farmers employ apprentices, these apprentices follow a training that is moorland based. the interesting thing is the apprentices moved farms each week, this increases the experience of the trainee and the farmer. The farmers work together and have the support of Sandra to sort any personality clashes out, she organises training and the wages are paid by an accountant. The Farmer pays by direct debit each week the minimum wage (AWB) required for an apprentice in to a central pot and can request extra help at busy times. This all sounded great and Sandra was keen to include our farm to give the students a chance to see some diversification, however as most students didn't have transport (some are only 16) and were based the other side of the moor the logistics just didn't work out. But it set me thinking that it could be an easy solution in areas where like minded farmers could share out an apprentice giving then a good broad experience, but without one farmer being burdened with all the responsibility. If a group of maybe three farmers took on a trainee and had them at their farm for one week in three, would everyone get a better deal?
Next step I approached Duchy college who have been really helpful, guiding me through the advertising process. But after leaving it until the end of August all the apprentices have already been snapped up.
So back to the job centre and although not allowed to say I wanted a fit strong 17 year old I did specify it was a job that would suit a trainee. Within 1/2 hour the phone started ringing as farm workers from around Britain and Ireland wanted to move to Devon. Some were poorly qualified, quite a few where redundant council workers, but mainly were well skilled and capable workers. This has made me think about the whole new entrants thing. Does farming as an industry really need any new entrants? There seems to be plenty of people out there that want to farm for themselves and plenty that would love a job on a farm, maybe instead of talking about where the new workforce is coming from, farmers have got to work out what they want. Anybody fancy doing a Nuffield Scholarship ?
So what have we done, well we have employed Andy who is not 17, he has a family, lives about 25 minutes away, has his chainsaw ticket and worked for the council cleaning the beaches. He is reliable and clean and polite, he uses his initiative and most importantly gets on with the work unsupervised. Hopefully having him will improve efficiencies and make savings which will allow the business to continue to expand to keep him on as a full time worker and maybe Elsa will be allowed to finish her schooling in peace.

Beautiful Devon and lunching with landlords

2010-10-23T08:20:00.000-07:00

A visit by Michael a Scottish Nuffield scholar has made me realise that I need to speed up this blog writing. Michael has visited Australia and New Zealand trying to mend the farming ladder and because he has not yet found the answers he was looking for, he decided to come to Devon. Now this is obvious to all of those that live in Devon as we all know that there are plenty of exciting new entrants doing amazing things down here. Some are food centred businesses, a lot are based on organic and many include direct selling. After realising that Michael wrote everything down (swotty or what) we made sure that his whistle stop tour didn't give him a chance to pick up his pen. We visited Poultry abattoirs, chicken farmers in temporary houses and chicken farmers that had built mini mansions (although still surrounded by caravans). Lot of figures for adding up but the message which I think we have to deliver in Devon is small can be big. Intensive farming in the form of adding value and being innovative means that you can live of 50 acres. It was a shame we didn't have longer so I could have shown him robot milkers so the farmer could bottle the milk, Fancy chicken breeder selling to smallholders and so many other businesses I admire. These are all genuine new entrants that haven't loads of money to start off. Then of course we have lots of new entrants down here that have had other careers, the ones we think aren't real farmers but bring other skills like marketing and media skills that we can learn from.
Just so Michael could write about somewhere really exotic we also went to a meeting in Cornwall with a group of land agents discussing 'the farming ladder'. Michael got very excited as he finally understood the county council farms system and he has written a great blog on it. As usual the best bit was the lunch and conversation. It seems that feeling was that under 250 acres was not a viable unit and should be taken back in hand. The priority was maintaining the estate value, especially the tidiness and that although the big estates understood that farming tenants needed help to retire and bring new blood in, they just didn't feel that it was for them to help. A tiny glimmer of hope when a National Trust agent admitted that on a Bodmin estate they had made a change and let land to young couple because the other large farmer tenants that had rented bare land used large machinery and farmed too efficiently to fit how the general public expected the land to be farmed.
Maybe one way of mending the ladder would be making some of the landowners realise the benefits of new innovative tenants and opening their minds to something beyond just profit. Could be a big job, but as Michael didn't seem to fancy chicken farming perhaps he's the guy to do it!

Picking Peppers in Cherry Valley

2010-10-21T14:57:00.000-07:00

A chance 5 minute conversation back in March led to me turning up at Stroudsburg PA bus station hoping that Heidi was going to let me into the secret of the CSA or community supported agriculture that is becoming an exciting opportunity for new entrants in the states. Thankfully she did collect me and with her husband Gary, welcomed me into their home for a week. Here I learnt that there is more to the American diet than burgers and that although we sometimes talk a different language, problems are just the same. It quickly became clear that Heidi could do with out a house guest during a busy garlic festival season and two days after her worker had left. So I had a chance to earn my keep and was set to work learning how a CSA worked from the bottom up. The weather was very hot in the day and cool at night, I got fit picking tomatoes and came back with a great suntan. I also came back being reassured that I could still work all day without the constant interuptions that happen at Higher Fingle.
Community supported agriculture (CSA) an interesting idea that seems to have great support. A CSA is a project which is often vegetable or produce, but can be meat or eggs, that the customers sign up for in January giving the often young farmer the capital to buy seeds and inputs.

Cherry Valley CSA had around 80 customers that paid $600 in January and started collecting their vegetables in May through to October. In September when produce was abundant they were receiving around $40 a week in squash, garlic, potatoes, carrots,tomatoes, peppers and wonderful fresh veg. The farm was also able to sell surplus produce at a local farmers market and attended a number of garlic festivals each year to sell the high value garlic crop. The customers that I talked to thought that paying early in the year guaranteed that they would get the produce and the were keen for the farm to continue operating. In 2009 early tomato blight had destroyed the crop, but this year abundant tomatoes meant they could take home basket loads. Although many were disappointed in 2009, they understood that the value of the CSA was being able to share in the bad times as well as the good, reconnecting people with the reality of food production. During my time in the states I saw many variations on the CSA themes which included buying clubs (paying $40 a year for privilege of buying from the farm stand) internet buying clubs and chicken shares. Although had a fantastic level of commitment from the customer to support the young farmer to make a living.

Like any farming, margins were tiny and the work was hard. Heidi in common with many new entrants had a passion for farming and was living her dream. Heidi, from a non-farming family finished a business degree then worked for the Peace Corp in Mali. On returning to the Sates in the late 1990's she decided that she wanted to farm and set about getting experience working for growers. Seeing 47 acres owned by Stroudsburg township not being utilized she approached them with a business plan in 2005 and managed to rent the land on a ten year lease for $1 a year. Through determination and hard graft she has cleared and fenced 5 acres to produce the vegetables. That leaves the other 42 acres of woodland and scrubby overgrown land that has so much potential but needs so much more than 10 years to do it in. In the UK Heidi would have been able to apply for an environmental grant to help maintain the biodiversity and provide educational access. But in the states that support is not available so each step will be only be taken when the money allows.
Heidi's wish list was to install some irrigation (hopefully this winter), get her customers more involved with the physical work, find the money to build a classroom and have time to have more fun. Her husband Gary had recently started working full time on the farm and his extra support,I hope will mean that she can a little more. Yet again I had met a new entrant that was determined against the odds to farm and worked tirelessly to make her business work.
I left Cherry valley when the weather turned to rain, but I left with having made some great friends that I hope will do me the honour of visiting my home one day.

Little Farm In The Big Woods

2010-10-11T15:11:00.000-07:00

Mary Jean with her goats in the woods

When I was six, my Mum read my Brother and I the classic children's tale Little House in the Big Woods. Laura Elizabeth Ingalls Wilder (February 7, 1867 – February 10, 1957) was an American author who wrote the series of books documenting her pioneer childhood. In the 1860's her father cleared woodland and farmed both crops and livestock near Pepin in Wisconsin. When Laura was six the family moved west to better farm land and opportunities. Their tale is a lesson in how hard farming can be and how resourceful the pioneers were.
In the Pocono Mountains in Northern Pennsylvania similar wood clearance occured and productive farming produced food for the urban populations of the East coast. Nowadays the area is woodland again, regenerated in the last 65 years as farming become uneconomic and the areas mainly residential.
On a scorching hot morning I hitched a lift to visit a 100 acre farm near Henryville. This was farmed by young couple Jeff and Mary Jean who inherited the farm from Jeff's grandfather. Here, where there was little soil, abundance of rocks and many trees, they were trying to recreate the fields that would have been cleared in the 1860's. Through the trees there are vast heaps of stones that form the field boundaries, these are the rocks cleared each year as the extreme frosts bought more to the surface each winter.
For the last 4 years they have been selling free range eggs and vegetables locally, but were yet to make a living. To make the farm viable they had invested Jeff's 'trust fund' in a building that included a goat milking parlour, cheese preparation room and a cheese cave. It really was a lovely building clad with wood from the farm and with a wood furnace to heat the water. They are just milking 12 goats to start the enterprise and were waiting to receive the final inspections to allow them to sell raw milk. Then they will increase the numbers to 48 females.
The milk sold in the US is pretty poor and there is a great interest in raw milk for health reasons. Mary Jean was determined that she was going to get her license, both from the economic reasons but also she believed it to be healthier.

I would love to have shown some of the grass obsessed Nuffield Scholars the tiny fields surrounded by tall trees and littered with large stones and I was impressed with young farmers taking an idea, that many would regard as mad and working hard to make it work.

Their wish list included an understanding vet ( they had a certain amount of resistance to being organic) and low cell counts.Veg Field & grass

During my travels in the US a theme seemed to appear of young farmers that were taking risks on marginal land and supplying direct to a customer produce that was unique.
However modern this farming was I still couldn't help feeling that at last, I was living the little House dream that many six year old girls love. How I covert a wooden house with a porch and rocking chair, but i'm not sure Nevil would be happy with black bears wandering around the farm.

Stunning new Goat milking barn and cheese dairy

Crabcakes and Vineyards

2010-09-27T09:15:00.000-07:00

Old Field vineyard, North Fork Long Island.

Merlot grapes, ready for harvest

Perry Baiz

One of the reasons for this blog is to try and remember where i have been and what i have seen, not just for when my memory packs up completely, but also so when the dreaded report writing begins i will be half way there. As I am doing my travel in short trips I have left myself very little time for anything and only managed to get some thoughts down thanks to Greyhound timetables. After a hectic few days, plans for a kayak trip on the Deleware have been abandoned due to rain which means no excuses not to blog.
As a not often travelled country girl i started my trip to the USA by visiting my cousin, Sarah and hubbie, Joe, in Great Neck, Long island New York. After surprising myself by not getting lost travelling from Newark my first weekend was spent being looked after with great hospitality.
North Fork Long Island used to be an area that grow lots of potatoes and cauliflowers for New York, but back in 1973 the first Vines were planted and now a thriving wine industry exists with mostly direct sales to the many tourists that visit each winery to have a $4 tasting and buying for home. Not just a few tourist were out when we visited, but crowds that included families, couples and bizarrely stretch limos full of Hen parties, certainly agritourism that seemed a great success.
Starting out early and driving to the furthest winery on the fork we had a great private tour with Perry Baiz, who with her mother and father farm The Old Field Vineyard
Old field had been purchased by Perry's great Grandfather and her father planted the first vines in 1974 and since 1997 all 12 acres have been vines, 95% of what they produce is sold direct from the farm. Perry and her mother make most of the wine, but they use the facilities at a more modern vineyard to make some and buy the grapes in to make the whites. Pretty much everything was manual, except for netting the grapes with a nifty machine mounted on the tractor. Great emphasis was placed on sustainability and this seemed to be something that was important in the marketing. When pressed why not organic, the risk of crop failure due to mildew and fungal diseases was thought to be the main reason, followed by the cost of registration and inspection. Perry had opted to study Environmental Biology before returning to the farm and found the UK's system of Agricultural education something that she would have been interested in if it was available in the states. Her Brother had decided not to farm and was a stunt man in Hollywood, however he came back each year to harvest the grapes. I'm not sure if his stunts had led to the other farm diversification that included the setting for film that is out soon starring Katie Holmes called the Romantics and it really is in a stunning place. If you love the views and want to have your wedding there you can hire the garden only and beautiful beach for $10,000.00 but bring your own tent, caters, potapotty and insurance. For the inconvenience of 6 weekends a year it suddenly is viable to farm on 12 acres and that is the beauty of being so close to such a huge number of people. But still Perry wished for the investment to put in a new barn with modern equipment and was envious of the city types that had bought neighbouring vineyards as hobbies and tax avoidance, have you heard that before? Maybe a few more films may make her wish come true, i hope so!

New wine barn on neighbours vineyard

And the crabcakes, nothing to do with the farm but that was our lunch in the lovely village of Greenport, where you could watch the Americans at play and see some stunning sailing boats and large speedboats.

Greenport Long Island

Blogging on a Circle

2010-09-20T13:29:00.000-07:00

So this is easton circle, the major tourist attraction in Easton and where they hold a farmers market since 1760's or something like, but not on a Monday. Monday is also the day the Crayola crayon attraction is closed, so's the canal museum and pretty much that's it. So while away the time i'm using Macdonalds wifi and not buying anything by sitting on a roundabout with a very nice fountain and weird music from hidden speakers. I'm quite glad i'm not staying longer than 6 hours. I've now been on the Pittsburg greyhound and i should have guessed when the driver said that noone gets off at Easton that it might be a little quiet. To while away the time, in good Nuffield style, i went to the town offices and found the lady in charge of the Easton Farmers market. A lot of thought and effort goes into the market and she assures me that they are thriving (unlike the UK where sales are definately down.) One of the things that helps is that they accept food stamps, as well as supplying a credit card machine for the stall holders to use. It is most definately not a well off area 19% below the poverty line) and not a particularly large town (2008 estimate was 26,080) but i was told that the market supported 28 traders, although they were looking for a new poultry supplier (bit far for Higher Fingle especially by greyhound)!) market pitches were $125 for the season that run each Saturday from May through to October, so by UK standards pretty reasonable which mean that the farmers can charge a reasonable price for their produce.
Things here get weirder as i'm joined on the roundabout by someone else using Macdonalds wifi and who is determined to tell me the history of Easton. I think that's a cue to escape as We get on to the reverse flag at the reading of the Declaration of Independance and the address of the local prison. Hopefully my bus will be here soon and I get to Stroudsburg before dark, but if anyone tells me that no one goes there I will believe them!

Girl Power

2010-08-16T14:39:00.000-07:00

The other week I spent an interesting day at The Royal Agricultural College Speaking to the Widening Participation officer. When I first found there was such a post I found it quite funny having gone to college at a time when the Royal maintained an exclusive status by having fees that were way above other colleges and was definitely not known for being inclusive.
Emma Thomas is an interesting person that is very much motivated by the benefits that education bring to young people. Her post is funded from several streams and is part of Aim Higher which is about making everyone aware of the benefits higher education can bring, whatever their background. This means that she is not just promoting Agricultural education. Most colleges and universities have such a person and bring all ages of school children onto campus to encourage them to aspire to Higher Education.
So why go to the Royal? I first contacted Emma because she runs the Young City Farmers Programme an idea inspired by The Black Farmer (Wilfred Emanual Jones) to get inner city kids out to experience the countryside and then help them equip themselves with the skills to go into land based industries. The programme is in it's 4th year and is funded from several land based charitable trusts and the results are now being seen. Previous student have gone on to various courses including NDA's in horticulture, apprenticeships and full time jobs. A really well thought out programme that certainly inspired youngsters to make agriculture their choice of career. The only draw back was it was only 12 students a year participating and the resources going into were quite considerable. Although Emma was pleased how the program had developed she felt that maybe it was not utilising resources efficiently and reaching out to enough students.
Emma was helped out by 2 very able girls that were Student Ambassadors. This looked like a job I could have done with at college with pay rates well over the minimum wage. Talking to these girls was where the day got very interesting. One was from a farm and was studying a degree in food chain, the other was from non farming background and in second year of a BSC in Agriculture. They had a fantastic commitment to promoting the food industry and bubbled over with enthusiasm. They obviously had the right communication skills to encourage school children to have a go at higher Education. I learnt loads from them, mainly about being old and cynical but also pearls of wisdom like 'of course we expect to be more professional than our parents generation' 'it is difficult to get experience on a farm but i always read the farmers weekly' 'i completed a tractor driving course but not yet learnt to reverse a trailer' ' on course of 40 Ag students only 4 are girls.' It was a bit mind blowing and i am still having a job working some of it out.
So far i am thinking that

Although i started on my pre college year 25 years ago, it is still nearly impossible to get a job on a farm without some experience
I thought we had done the feminist bit and proved that girls were as good as the boys, but I just must not notice anymore. (did you know that only 10% of farmworkers are female)
It's about time farmers woke up and took both girls and boys more seriously before all this youthful enthusiasm goes somewhere else.
Why on earth is Agriculture the one course at RAC that doesn't require any practical experience?

Nevil says that i should have gone and visited a proper Agriculture College (old habits die hard) and maybe I will and maybe the demographics will be different, I hope so.
The following week I got even more confused when the Farmer Weekly had some forum on 'What should a Farmers Daughter do?' Sometimes I am at a loss how to understand an industry that seems to find what your father works at more important than your skills (how many job interviews ask that?) and seems content to dismiss 50% of the workforce because of their Sex.
As a mother of 2 Daughters and 3 Sons I know which ones are the most focused and ambitious and the most useful on the farm. OK so not really scientific survey but that's Nuffield.
Phew,Rant Over so you can relax now!

My Pre-College farm, Newhouse Farm where the Hook family were good enough to teach me to drive a tractor. I did work for £35 per week for 3 months and was very proud when they decided I was good enough to be paid a proper wage.

Okehampton Show with kiwi humour

2010-08-12T14:06:00.001-07:00

One thing we do well in the South West is Agricultural shows. The smaller local shows that are run with passion by volunteers are the best days out, much more entertainment than any theme park. Today we went off to Okehampton show and it did not disappoint. This show has had a few years that it had to be cancelled due to bad weather, but it has recovered and seemed to have loads of top class stock, as well as all the usual rural entertainment.Funny moments included the pig couple showing where one pair of white pigs caused chaos, a black sow who managed to wee on Alfred's foot and best of all the fantastic Sheep show
Who could possibly forget the sheep characteristics after such a brilliant demonstration, only a Kiwi could train nine sheep to dance.
The show was packed with all ages, both looking at and exhibiting livestock, crafts and vintage machinery. Sightly worrying to see a ford Fiesta in vintage display of the same age that i was so proud to buy after one summer of tractor driving, but great seeing David Brown Cropmaster that I remember watching our neighbour ploughing with when I was just a youngster ( mind you it must have been fairly vintage then).
Judging on today the young are most certainly interested in the countryside, and the countryside has people that are prepared to put in huge amounts energy of running the show or exhibiting, the challenge is how does that transfer to a commitment to start those youngsters on a career in farming.

Who needs Holidays?

2010-08-01T14:33:00.001-07:00

As we head for home, we start to list reasons we can’t stay for longer. Ian Walker the owner of our lovely holiday gite was really pleased that he had quite a few 3 week bookings. Most of these bookings seemed to be school teachers, but even a 2 week holiday seems to be something that we may save like mad to achieve, but organising would be very near impossible. After getting our first farm we never left the place together for 5 years, eventually we took the kids on a weekend trip to Woolacombe to stay in a caravan that was all of 30 miles away, what a revelation and what fun. The children had our undivided attention and we could relax. As Nevil could quickly return to sort any problems out we were able to leave our very capable French agricultural student in charge.

With the children getting older and employing full time staff as well as students, last year was the first time we attempted a full week holiday. Of course now with mobile phones and many holiday accommodation having wi-fi you can pretty much keep in touch constantly and we have been able to keep an eye on the day to day running of the poultry business and even update this blog! However, farming by internet is pretty impossible and to get away Nevil had to work non-stop before we left and had to pay to leave someone reliable in charge.

So is it worth it? Although the hassle of travelling with 5 children is a little desperate (I’m writing this on the ferry, help!) Nevil and I are coming back refreshed and with hopefully a clearer direction and new ideas. The children are healthy and brown, their swimming has improved and they have an appreciation of French. They have been out for very traditional French meals and behaved themselves (mostly), been and bought bread and sweets on their own at the boulangier, cultivating with a young French farmer in a John Deere and played French Pokeman. More importantly we have all spent time together as a family.

So yes, a Nuffield experience most definitely broadens the horizons, not just for us but the children as well. Growing up on the farm can be fantastic but could become isolating; hopefully we are equipping them with skills to grow up into confident adults, not frightened to push the boundaries.

So how does a new entrant step back, assess their business and take a rest. Pretty near impossible but from our experience it should compulsory! Those farms where the parents are on hand no problem, but first generation farmers the cost and worry of taking a break at prohibitive. A while back I was talking to a local representative for Farm Crisis Network that was popping in each day to check on the relief milker so a young farmer was having a chance of a worry free family holiday. Maybe preventing a Crisis is a network the farming community should be organising themselves and offering the young a chance for a rest.

Meanwhile, I must prevent a crisis with a seven year old who really is not coping well with the sea, may be next year we will try Cornwall.

Noix

2010-07-28T14:03:00.000-07:00

We are staying in a delightfully farmhouse/barn conversion owned by an english family who moved to france in 2006 and renovated a house for themselves and two holiday cottages. By selling a 3 bedroom Bungalow in Bournmouth they were able to buy the buildings and 6 ha with only a small mortgage and enjoy an enviable quality of live. With 2 young children they integrate with the local communities but admit they find making friends with the locals difficult as most in the rural villages are fairly elderly. But their children are doing well at the local schools and they are happy with the standards of schooling. But even we find it quiet here, i can imagine that someone that never lived in the country before could find it a massive change.
The 6 ha that are owned go right upto the road edge and there is a wide grass verge with well maintained walnut trees. This is another thing that the Perigord region is renowned for. There is 28 walnut trees on the verge (Dora counted them) and these yield around 800 euros of nuts that are all sold to the local co-op. Locally you can find allsorts of products made from walnuts including a wicked walnut wine that seems similar to Sloe gin, made using green walnuts, eau-de-vie, red wine and sugar.
When we found the local farmers market at Riberac there was a stall selling walnuts and walnut products. After Alfred manage to hit the farmer firmly over the knuckles with what i imagine is the local authentic nutcracker and bowl i felt oliged to buy at least something. So we came away with noix confit, nothing to do with ducks but i think like a marron glace or similar. Dad bought some strong smelling nut oil for salads. Again all very traditional and authentic, but also quite expensive, however it was the first organic products we have managed to find.

Canard!

2010-07-27T14:02:00.000-07:00

So today we have finally found some ducks and what a revelation the canard industry is. At Val De Chandiere batchs of ducks were bought in at 14 weeks for 12 euros then Gavarage or force fed soaked maize for 15 days and then were worth 50 Euros. Every 3 weeks batchs of 120 were bought in then processed to make everything you could possibly want from a duck, rillette,confit, Foie gras, Grillons,the list was endless! Our host seemed to find it unbelievable that in the UK we did not have a market for necks and gizzards. Here they were even selling the green offals. The processing plant was of reasonable standard but nowhere near the levels of hygiene and maintance that are required in the UK, this was particularly disapointing for Nevil when he struggles at home with constantly changing legislation that is meant to be the same across the EU.
Top price product today went to Foie Entier at 133.33 Euro's per kg, thats the whole lobes of liver in a tin. If you wanted cheaper then you could buy Bloc de foie Gras that is pressed together, much better value at 90 euros per kg. We currently sell organic duck livers that weigh around 50g each at £9 per kg a force fed canard Foie will weigh around 500g.
As usual I came back laden with more tins and jars to try, but for a change tonight we ate Duck sausages with lentiles Vert as even nevil is start to complain about the amount of duck confit he is being made to eat!

The Gavage or force feeder, Ducks are fed boiled maize twice a day.

The Cooker where the fat is rendered and then all the parts of duck are cooked. Looks similar to a ham boiler. (That disgusting thing is a cooked neck being hooked out for making into a rough pate)

Ducks in cages and on slatted floor, something that our customers would find unacceptable. Ducks are Mulards or mules a sterile cross between a barbary male and a female pekin. Finished dead weight will be around 5 to 5.5 kg

The Dordogne France

2010-07-26T13:43:00.000-07:00

I thought it was a good plan to take the overnight ferry from plymouth and drive down through France to Gouts Rossignol deep in the french countryside. About 2 oclock in the morning trying to cuddle a seasick seven year old on a very hard floor i had serious doubts that this counted as a Nuffield experience. It is not completely a nuffield trip and we are also on holiday, but for many years we have talked about seeing how the French farm so here we are. Nevil and I, 5 children and 80 year old Dad. So far the weather is better than Devon and there is lots of sunflowers, but we have more in common with french farmers than we would like to admit. Highlights so far include BBQ maigret cannard with potatoes from a night street market, vintage tractor show with line dancers and lots of duck products. So far we have seen plastic ducks at the fair, china ducks and plenty of confit but no real ducks. So there goes the popular myth that canard are wandering free range. As usual i have spent time studying meat in the supermarket and the prices (bearing in mind the exchange rate being rubbish) are about what you would expect to pay in UK. in fact the price is probable more expensive as much for sale seems to be indoors reared and most definately not organic.

Not really Farming

2010-07-18T14:00:00.000-07:00

So the last post was a bit of a fib. Not the bit about the farm, but the money actually comes from the farm diversification. Although beef and sheep are very nice there is no way we could live off the farm without an alternative income. As i have never wanted to get a proper job we decided after the foot and mouth diaster of 2001 to diversify and started producing organic poultry. Starting with Christmas geese our business is now based around organic ducks and chickens, all processed and marketed ourselves. I am very proud of what we have achieved, but sometimes look fondly back to the days when our farm work was seasonal. The chicken industry is cut throat and requires us to operate everyday except Christmas day. The last 18 months have been challenging, but we are still here and expanding with lots of exciting plans for the future. Not quite the farming i dreamed off many years ago, but it has certainly been fun and we have met some interesting people!

Nevil weighing & packing chicken plus views of the abbatoir

Higher Fingle

2010-07-15T14:32:00.000-07:00

The last few months have been spent trying to catch up with accounts and get all the paperwork up to date before the school holidays begin. So not much time for Nuffield planning, so to fill the gaps here are some photos of Higher Fingle farm a 57 acre county council all grassland farm. It's quite hilly, a bit rundown and only rented on short term FBT but it provides a living for the Amiss family and employs 2 full time workers as well as numerous part timers. The good news is Devon county council have reviewed their farm policies and the future looks much more secure for tenants that are prepared to invest capital and be more innovative. So our next project is to start planning for a longer term future.

Cows and calves in Sale field

Gloucester Heifer 'Zeriba Bramley' with newborn calf

Looking down on the farm and house from the top fields.

View looking the other way towards Drewsteignton, much of the farm is steep.

Parlez vous francais?

2010-05-28T03:58:00.000-07:00

I have finally booked some foreign travel, not on my own this time,but en masse with all 5 kids, 1 Farmer and my 80 year young dad. This will be quite an adventure! We are off to the Dordogne, an area I have always wanted to go to, looking at duck farms. The planned visit is to see Mylène et Yohan Guicheteau at Val de Chanedière, which just happens to be a cousin of a friend of a friend, or something complicated like that. They run a diversified farm a bit like ours with farm visits, holidays and canard production.
What i have always admired about the french is the way they are not frightened to know how their poultry is reared and slaughtered. It amazes me that websites for Foie Gras production and Poulet de Bresse show you with great pride and detail all the gory bits. We sometimes have customers that visit us and really like to understand all our process but I am unsure that having a website with it on would help my marketing much. Obviously Foie Gras is not organic and is seen by many as cruel, but i feel that we need to look to have an opinion
I am hoping not just learn about the help new entrants get in France, but how to preserve Duck and increase not just value but shelf life. At Val de Chanedière they produce canard Foie gras and then Confit with everything. Nothing is wasted even the Gesiers is made into a delicous confit (that's giblets to all you uneducated!!).

The other week We had a brief visit from the family that will act as my translator and they bought us some tins to try. They were a real treat, perfect convenience food and I am now counting the days to our big trip. I was left a bit embarrassed during their visit by my lack of French. Being obsessed with farming from an early age I never saw the use of learning it at school and so far that has not been a problem. At college we had some good French friends and we spent three days at their wedding not understanding much but getting along just fine (it may have been the muscadet.) Since then we have had French Agriculture students on the farm for the last 11 years and my french has still not improved beyond describing the anatomy of a poulet and canard (Nevil can do it in polish and Latvian too!).
So in the true spirit of the Nuffield Scholarship i have bought myself learn french on the computer and sit here trying out weird phrases as I try and do the wages. More fun is the school program that Elsa found for me which is a game with aliens speaking french. I've got 6 weeks to go.......

Farming: The Next Generation 18th May 2010

2010-05-19T12:46:00.000-07:00

In the lovely peaceful settings on Stoneleigh Park this conference jointly organised by Fresh Start and Easton College had the aims to look at;

‘Who are the next generation of farmers?

What is being done to ensure they have the tools and support to become established as business men and women who have a real impact on UK farming?’

So did it achieve those aims? Now I love the idea of conferences, it’s a day out, the food is normally good and it is a chance to meet lots of jolly interesting people with lots of interesting ideas. However quite often I come away and feel that it’s missed the point or failed to deliver what it set out to do.

This conference was no different, the company was good and the ideas and motivations excellent, but I do feel it failed to really get to grips with the problem. But what is the problem? It really is such a big subject a weeklong conference would likely to be needed. The most important thing is it happened and that is part of the first steps. Several speakers suggested succession planning for farms will take 15 years; maybe it will take 15 years for the industry to come up with a plan how it is going to deal with the recruitment and retention of youngsters.

There was certainly some interesting speakers that are worthy of noting! Luckily I booked to attend the meal the night before, so I was privileged to listen to Sir Don Curry as the pre dinner speaker. Although not all farmers agree I have always thought the Sir Don speaks a lot of sense and his food and farming report after foot and mouth helped us decide the direction our farming career took. He has recently headed a report into the importance of council farms and he told us his concerns about the vulnerability of the council estates in the current economic climate and how he had just issued a press release condemning Gloucester Councils decision to terminate tenancies and sell farms. His solution to the lack of farms to rent for new entrants is to work with estates and landowners to create opportunities.

The first speaker during the day was Dr Matt Lobly from Exeter University who for many years has been collecting farm transfer data both nationally and internationally. He showed us some very interesting slides, that in his interpretation said, yes there is a problem with farmers making some sort of succession plan, but the problem in the UK is not half as bad as most other countries. An interesting point he pulled out was the small number of daughters be included in the plans. He talked about the ‘Succession Effect’ where a succession plan drives the business forward and stimulates expansion. He also quoted a government survey from 1979 that showed concern that farming was in danger of becoming closed shop which created lower levels of innovation and less business dynamism.

The other Inspirational speaker was John Baker from Iowa State University and he runs the Beginner Farmer Centre. He set out how they are dealing with the same problems in Iowa. Sorting out succession plans, matching new entrants and farms and the tax breaks that now available to get these things moving. And it seems to be working, but from the figures we saw earlier there were greater problems to sort out.

Other interesting people to note include Denis Chamberlain MBE who is the chair of fresh start and is committed to the next generation, Richard Longthorpe a pig farmer that is driving the Agriskills forum forward to try and improve the skill levels and professionalism in farming, Mike Mack a recent Nuffield scholar who is keen to get a national Mentoring program going, Henry Cator from RASE who is also farmer and land agent and the case studies that included Christina Hope that runs a village shop from her parents farm and David and Lizzie Otley who trade as Blue Welly farm and produce pork for direct sales and hog roasts and would just like 10 acres in one place to make a living form.

So quite a mix of ideas, some of which has given me some thoughts where to go next. But the whole event has left me a bit uneasy that still farmers are not yet ready to embrace the next generation, but I’m hoping that this maybe just the start on something that will contribute to the future success of our industry

Working out what to do next

2010-05-10T13:00:00.000-07:00

The farmer and I have spent many hours pondering how to go about the rest of my Nuffield study. It seems like for the first time ever I am going to need a PLAN!
One of the things that made me giggle in USA was the management talk and the Gettysburg leadership training. When you are a self employed farmer you don't bother much with the latest inspirational talks or 'in' words and sayings. There is no office politics or team work, we just get on with it or the ship sinks! At Gettysburg we were told we needed to Innovate, Adapt and Overcome. We even had Abraham Lincoln turn up to reinforce the message!
Maybe Higher Fingle farm needs to be stop being so cynical and then we may find we are more successful. So in this more open frame of mind We have tried to get some Key words outlining Organic Ducks Great Adventure.

INSPIRE,

This is easy after talking to lots of new entrants (including my favourite one from Sunderland)and asking the question why? the most common answer was 'I want to farm.' Now that is a pretty farmer type answer but when you pull it about a bit the main reason was some real desire to work on the land. This desire was sometimes (as in my case) inspired when very young, but often in the teenage years when choosing their options at school. So on this basis I need to look at HOW to INSPIRE people to go into the farming industry.

New entrant, Dora 7 want's to be a 'Horse Farmer'

ENABLE
Not so easy this one, the educating and training youngsters with the skills required is fairly straightforward. We have got some great land based colleges in the UK, but we seem to have lost sight of practical skills training so checking out the new Diplomas and the Fresh Start Academies may show me some interesting things. The hard one is enabling a new entrant to farm on their own. Currently I am excited to find out about CSA's, Equity share farming and countries where land use is more tightly controlled.

SUCCEED
This is the one we have yet to sort out! If we want new entrants then we need them to succeed and survive when the going gets tough (because it always will!) You can argue that the financial support is there in the form of tax credits and other social security help. From our experience the practical and mentoring support is missing in an industry that by it's nature is isolating and lonely. Thinking about organised support networks we thought about Farm Crisis Network, but why wait fo a crisis, maybe this is the mentoring and practical advice that we could have done with at times.
The other main theme here is what is success? I think we need to look at aiming for successful retirement which is how, in most industries much time is spent planning for.
Mick Ayres Builder Retired at 75

Fresh Start (another Parish post article)

2010-05-10T12:47:00.000-07:00

View from the Farm!
This month as well as trying to do the end of year accounts, I have been trying to get to grips with what is happening with new entrants in the UK. To make things more complicated different approaches have been taken in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland which reflects the different subsidy systems in each area. The one thing they are all agreed on is that farming needs new entrants and that they need some support to succeed.
I had the opportunity to talk to the national coordinator of Fresh Start, an organisation that was launched in December 2004 by Sir Donald Curry and aims to secure future for farming in England by a whole raft of measures. To make life easier these are listed below:
• Promoting an entrepreneurial culture amongst the next generation of farm business owners
• Promoting the use of generic business planning and management techniques.
• Promotion of farming as an attractive career option for new entrants.
• Development of a ‘matching service’ that will link potential new entrants to those wishing to reduce their involvement or wishing to retire.
• Development of a national mentoring capability for all new/growing farm enterprises.
• Practical support for a continued professional development culture to be adopted by everybody working in the industry.
A year after the initiative was launched the concept of Fresh Start Academies was launched. These Academies run across the country and typically involve training in business skills, mentoring and then identifying opportunities through a matchmaking network.
To date around 30 Academies have been running at different times and a number of graduates had managed to secure tenancies. But all these academies are run on a shoestring with some areas managing to secure some funding from local sources and most of the professional time being given for free. These professional include land agents, Solicitors, accountants, consultants and land managers. DEFRA have backed the initiative, however currently it only has provided funding for the next three months, even though the development of new entrants was part of the food strategy announced by Hilary Benn back in January. This funding is enough for administration and employment of a national coordinator for 20 hours a week, not many hours to cover the whole of England.
So is it working? Well I believe the academies are working but they are not yet making a big difference to number of new farmers. So far the matching of opportunities seems to be treated with suspicion in the UK, although it has had some success in USA and France. Inspiring new entrants seems not approached yet, but in the coming year there are to be some work with careers advisors and teachers. Then there is the money, in my experience it is the biggest hurdle and nobody seems to be even talking about the low interest loans and loan guarantees that are available in France.
So where do the farmers come in? Well there are farmer stakeholders involved with the academies but they are outnumbered by those professionals and farming as an industry is not contributing anything in the way of money. I believe that unless farmers themselves get involved in the initiative then it will not result in success. Who better to mentor a young farmer than a local neighbour and what a difference lending a piece of equipment or helping out when things are going wrong makes when you are struggling to get a business of the ground. Thinking up a way of organising that such of help could take some time!
This Article was published in Drewsteignton Parish Post in May.

Super Market shopping

2010-04-23T06:46:00.000-07:00

Being the adventurous sort and always interested in food, a hastily arranged trip in Harrisburg to an upmarket supermarket was gave me plenty to ponder on. Our guide was a lovely working Mum who worked for the Pennsylvania Ag department. During a mad drive to the suburbs, she told us plenty about her life which was pretty much the same as a UK mum's including complicated childcare arrangements. The thing she found extraordinary was the thought that so many young UK Mums do their supermarket shopping online and have it delivered when the children are in bed. In fact she dismissed it as something that would never work in the US.
The supermarket we went to was not Wholefoods, but reasonably top end, probably the equivalent of a better Sainsburys. The scale was vast and the number of SKU's in each range was impressive. The lightening overall was not particularly pleasant and it certainly didn't maximise the ambiance! The fresh meat was a fairly mixed bunch and to mind the packaging was fairly basic, with mostly vac packing and only a few lines that were gas flushed in trays. The labelling was reasonable but a long way from the sophisticated graphics the UK consumer expects.So maybe the Americans are more savy when it comes to eco packaging and minimise waste. the cuts of meat were pretty much the same, but the large joints were very large with 5kg pieces of beef topside and other megga joints. On the Organic product there was quite a lot of choice, especially in milk and dry goods that could be seen as healthy. The most interesting thing with the poultry was the description of Broiler chicken, In the UK we seem to dress up the worst reared broiler as barn reared or select. the other chicken was organic free range and that was it. No freedom foods, farmer reared, free range, woodland or any other marketing nonsense, just Organic and broiler. How much more straight forward things would be if we had that approach and how much easier would it have been for me in the last year when the organic chicken market has been in free fall as people have downgraded to all these other welfare standards.
Always the consumer i came back laden not with chicken but Old Bay seasoning (great sprinkled on spatchcock chicken)Egg decorating kits, coloured popcorn and yet more cupcake cases.
My next trip to the US i am hoping to get some proper shopping in and try some Farmers markets, CSA's (that's community supported agriculture which is similar to a box scheme) and track down a successful Wholefoods market ( i still haven't got the point of the one in London!)

More ramblings from the USA

2010-04-20T05:24:00.000-07:00

One of the most interesting things on my visit to the USA was having a look round some of the biggest and best examples of Pennsylvanian agriculture. One fascinating visit was to Mason Dixon Farms, a large dairy herd of 4000 cows. This was very much a family farm, but on a huge scale. The problems for US dairy farmers are the same as in Devon, with falling milk price and volatility of inputs making an industry that no longer can support a secure income. To overcome this Mason Dixon farms had slashed the costs of production and were producing milk at around half the cost of average US dairies. The impressive scale of how they did this was amazing. On arriving we were welcomed into the farm cinema to see a movie of the Dick Wainwright story of success, the key we were told was innovation and adaptability. In summary that innovation was ‘to be big,’ big tractors, mowers, fields and livestock numbers. We were looking at equipment that you would struggle to move down the A30 let alone down some of our Devon farm lanes. We were then given a tour of the farm which meant that we were driven by coach through the cattle housing! Here the cows were kept in groups of 150 cows, in cubicles and milked by robots. They had very little handling by humans which apparently suits the cows better. Welfare was proved to be excellent, with a vet employed on site. The average number of lactations per cow was 3 which I believe was the national average. All the feed was grown by the farm and mainly based round a maize diet and an anaerobic digester provided the electricity to run the farm and export some to the national grid. So a pretty impressive system, but I, along with most of the British definitely did not feel comfortable with that system. The cows never went outside, they were tail docked, the cubicles were smaller than allowed in the UK and the sheer scale just seemed to be the wrong way to produce milk.

Of course this is now being debated in the UK with the plans for the super dairy in Lincolnshire causing a lot of divided opinion. Here in the South West we are good at producing grass and milk. Although many dairy farms have been sold up, there are still some successful businesses that have adapted and innovated. But their way of cutting the costs of production is by utilising what we have got and maximising the milk from grass. Sometimes this is organically but normally this is using organic principles combined with more conventional methods. Often these farms are 150 to 200 cow herds employing 3 or 4 people and being a positive part of the local community. As a consumer I want to be paying enough to ensure that my milk is coming from cows that go outside and I think that is what the debate has to be about, if consumers want a food produced in a certain way they have to be prepared to pay for it. It will be interesting to see how debate progresses!

If anybody recognises this post then you're right, it was first published in Drewsteington Parish post titled View from The Farm. But it was me that wrote that, so now the worst kept secret is out and you all know who I am!

London trip

2010-03-07T18:47:00.000-08:00

So the first few days of the Nuffield Scholarship has been spent in london with intense days spent discussing the direction of British agriculture. Mind blowing stuff and particularly hard to adapt to keeping to a tight timetable with 21 very strong individuals all wanting todo their own thing! day 2 include a visit to the houses of parliment and never being able to miss an opportunity here is a fellow scholar in Westminster Hall delivering some Higher Fingle bags filled with Duck eggs, Scottish honey and Welsh mutton Salami to Baroness Byford. Then we were off to the DEFRA headquarters with more bags and lots of intelligent questions. Not much time for site seeing during the day but heres some nighttime shots of travalgar square with the Lion especially for Elsa!

Higher Fingle farm

2010-02-28T13:53:00.000-08:00

So here I am contemplating my exciting adventure, starting with a trip to the Nuffield scholars conferance in Washington DC. To find out more about the Nuffield Scholarship read the website
In a fit of despondancy on the general state of farming and farmers attitude to change, back in November I applied for the scholarship and to my great surprise i was awarded this great opportunity to see the world and hopefully add to the debate on where farming should be going.
In the way that Life tends to be, the last five weeks have not been the easiest time and i have so far had little chance to plan what and how I will go about my study, hopefully the coming two weeks will give me time to really get to grips with what i need to do. However i am determined to still work by the rule of one day at a time and just see where each meeting or visit leads me on to.
So now I am busy writing lists, finishing invoices and wages, Labelling egg boxes, washing and ironing and trying to cook enough cakes so that my five darlings don't starve. Of course they will be fine and if they are hungry i don't suppose it will harm if they eat just Chocolate for 12 days.
At Higher Fingle Farm the weather continues to be wet and the ducks are a sea of mud. The hedges are now getting big enough to start laying, but we haven't managed to get as much done as we would like, getting badly behind with the snow and rain. With the cold weather nothing has started budding yet and i reckon we have another week or two to finish a bit more off, well Nevil will when he isn't getting costumes ready for World book day and helping with homework!