Running in the family – young and old take a fresh look at farming

Farming is in the blood. Left to right: Rosemary, Jim, Helena, children Daisy and Luca.

Wild about FARMING

The support system for farming is changing. White Peak farmers Rosemary Furness (nee Allen) and Jim Furness talk to Alison Riley about how their family are giving nature a helping hand by trialling new approaches for the Government’s new Environmental Land Management scheme (ELMs).

Meeting three generations of Allens in a field, it is clear that family and a love of the land is at the heart of the Beech Farm business. Fresh air, mud, and nurturing an early knowledge of nature are some of the benefits enjoyed by Helena’s grandchildren Daisy and Luca. They’re also growing up in a farming world that is changing. The post war legacy of focusing on food production is giving way to a new breed of 21st century farmerscome-environmental pioneers who want to marry farming with boosting biodiversity, soil health and carbon storage. Jim: “Our parents were told to dig for victory, to plough the hay meadows they grew up running through in clouds of butterflies.” Helena: “By the nineties, they’d all but gone. We were given grants for improving land – farmers get blamed but we did what we were asked.”

This family has not just witnessed changes in agriculture, it’s played an active role at every turn. They are currently one of six farms in the Peak District taking part in practical field trials which will inform Defra’s ELMs Tests and Trials. An intensively managed silage field has been sown with a three metre buffer zone of

wildflowers. Adjacent fields have been sown in blocks, of different combinations of ground preparation/seed treatment, with wildflowers, grasses and native scrub. Rosemary: “I don’t like bright green, monoculture fields, there’s nothing interesting in them. My dad loves a green field but that’s failure to me, and that’s the difference between his generation and mine – post-war the nation needed feeding.”

Taking part in the trials makes us feel like trailblazers

Beech Farm, Taddington, is a traditional, upland beef and sheep farm, on 300 hectares of White Peak plateau. They have 200 traditional Aberdeen Angus and Hereford cattle, and 350 commercial beef cattle which graze during the summer and are housed over winter. 700 sheep produce 1,300 lambs in spring. Animals are sold through the abattoir to Tesco and M&S.

Beech Farm is in Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier. Priority environmental features are Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) daleside, historic field system drystone walls, and lead mining remains. Also of interest: dewponds, shelterbelt woodlands, semi-improved grassland on the plateau and historic field barns that will be preserved in the future for birds, principally barn owls and swallows. The Allens already restore daleside grassland, hay meadows and dry stone walls.

“Being part of the trials has reawakened the pioneering spirit in us. We feel like trailblazers. I have a picture in mind of the wildlife clambering out of the Taddington Dale, coming over the edge onto our land rather than the wildlife being just in the dale – it’s about creating the opportunity for it – it’s about connectivity.

Jim: “It went too far, farmers got better and better at producing and we ended up with food mountains. Silage production was at the expense of what had gone before; rye grass converts efficiently into energy and protein to make your cattle grow but it isn’t any use to insects or birds.”

For young Luca, wildlife is the most important thing: “Caterpillars, grasshoppers, butterflies, hedgehogs and birds, I’d like to see newts and tadpoles too.”

Barn owls breed on the farm now, and Jim says they are excellent at vermin control: “The straw shed is their smorgasbord.” He would like to see curlews back; Rosemary wants to see cowslips, yellow rattle, red campion, forget-me-nots, stitchwort, bluebells and more orchids – purple and Beech Farm, Taddington with Fin Cop in the background.

common spotted as well as hares and skylarks; Helena’s favourites are primroses and violets.

Rosemary: “The balance has tipped the other way now, I want to see what nature has to offer on the land we’ve got. I hope ELMs will change farming and reward us for increasing biodiversity. I’m not the sort of person that gets excited about making lots of money, I appreciate what is around me more than having money in the bank, but

we need to earn a living at the same time. “You can’t carry on doing the same thing and expect change to happen. We’re looking to work smarter not harder – it’s about being bigger, better and more joined up for the environment. Last year I went to a rewilding conference and came away feeling empowered because I could see how I can make a difference. It’s got the whole family interested, even my dad. The turning point was being paid to do it, we need to be

Good moo-rning! Cows getting nosy about The White Peak trial.

Generations of people have valued farming differently because of society’s different needs.

WWII. Dig for victory. More land is ploughed. Food rationing continues. National food shortages, farmers told to increase food production. Intensive farming methods encouraged e.g. silage production.

Herbal leys (left) – mixes of grasses, legumes and herbs – are being trialled on other farms (right) to test benefits for carbon storage and biodiversity.

paid fairly for delivering changes, we can’t work for nothing.

“I want us to farm less intensively, with half the animals we currently have, but we have to cover our overheads. I’d like to have more traditional breeds that can be outside for longer, but year round grazing on the plateau is difficult to achieve.”

Part of the challenge is not knowing if the practical trials will work because of the fertile soils on the White Peak plateau after years of using pesticides and fertiliser – will the seeds grow, and if they do well in the first year, will they continue to do well competing with other species?

Jim: “We don’t know the answers yet, we will learn as we go along. We want to mimic a structurally diverse environment so just planting trees wouldn’t give us the results we want. We will also look at diversification and other income streams. It all goes hand in hand with farming more sustainably, but there are lots of unknowns.”

The Allens are rising to the challenge in the Government’s 25-year Environment Plan to leave the environment in a better state than they found it and pass it on to the next generation, protected and enhanced. This is set against the backdrop of Brexit, leaving the Common Agricultural Policy, and working with the UK’s new Agriculture Bill under which farmers and land managers will receive public money for the public goods they deliver through ELMs.

The White Peak The White Peak area is between Buxton and Ashbourne, known for its limestone geology and panoramic views. The upland plateau is mostly farmed; its deep dales are havens for wildlife. People have lived, farmed and mined there for thousands of years, shaping how it looks today. Its height above sea level means it is generally regarded as poor land for agriculture but the plateau land can be farmed intensively. Limestone buildings and dry stone walls help give the landscape its distinctive look.

What is ELMs? • ELMs is the proposed new Environmental Land Management scheme for farmers and land managers. • ELMs will replace the current support schemes for farmers and land managers – Basic Payment Scheme, Environmental and Countryside Stewardship Schemes. In future there will be no payment for simply owning land. • ELMs will pay farmers and land managers public money for the public goods they deliver.

Public money for public goods Public goods are the benefits farmers deliver such as access, air and water quality, biodiversity, carbon storage, cultural heritage, and landscape enhancement.

What are Defra’s ELMs Tests and Trials? • They are an opportunity for farmers and land managers to co-design ELMs. • Ideas for a new scheme were developed by the National Park Authority, farmers, land managers and partners. • Defra has selected some of these ideas for the National Park Authority, farmers and land managers to test in the White Peak – The White Peak Test. • The practical field trials, developed by the National Park Authority, Natural England and six farms, will inform the ELMs White Peak Test.

For information about support for farmers and land managers, speak to a National Park Farm Adviser on Mondays at Bakewell market, in the Agricultural Business Centre, or call 01629 816 270.

1980s 2000s1990s 2020s Brexit. UK reform of farm support payments with public goods high on the agenda. Studies show loss of wildlife habitats, species, cultural heritage and landscape features. Some 97% of hay meadows had been lost. Agri-environment schemes mainstreamed. Over-production of some foods with European food mountains and lakes driven by Government support for agricultural production. Agrienvironment schemes developed. Conventional agrienvironment schemes seek to conserve and enhance high quality environmental features but main support payments largely driven by farm size. Continued environmental losses.