Swiss sufficiency in a COVID climate

Meet the farmer ‘Touch wood’

Doug Richardson of Morville Farm, St Ouen spoke to Alasdair Crosby about how he has built up a recycling business, diversified his family farm and about his future plans

Nothing could be more redolent of Jersey’s traditional farming culture than the appearance of Morville Farm, St Ouen The office of its owner, Doug Richardson, is the converted apple store; on the ground floor beneath it used to stand the apple press; nearby are the stables where once the farm horses were kept.

Born into the purple of prominent cattle-breeding families, he is currently vice-president of the Jersey Farmers Union. He gets up extra early during the potato season to lead his team digging Jersey Royals. Could one get any more traditional than all that?

Well, read on:

‘We have carved out a niche in the rural economy by re-cycling Jersey’s timber packaging waste, which is predominantly pallets. We harvest pallets, across the Island, 52 weeks a year.’

He was speaking in what once had been the farmyard, but is now a storage area for pallets. ‘We harvest pallets from the whole range of commercial operations that receive their imported goods on pallets. The pallets provide the bedrock for our commercial operation: the manufacture and export of kindling wood. The whole thing together sustains a workforce for the harvesting of Jersey Royals. ‘We do something that no-one else does. We re-cycle pallets on an industrial scale. We also produce a coloured woodchip product called Colourbed, and a range of different woodchips. We also intend to expand our production of animal bedding, predominantly for the dairy industry. We can manufacture it from the large quantities of woodchip that we produce from the pallets.’

“We have carved

out a niche in the rural economy by re-cycling Jersey’s timber packaging waste, which is predominantly pallets. We harvest pallets, across the Island, 52 weeks a year

How did he get this particular idea for diversification?

‘In 1993, I was growing potatoes and also courgettes as a second crop. I could see the way the agricultural industry was likely to go, so I wanted to diversify and started making the traditional Jersey potato box and wooden presentation gift-boxes for the wine trade. But I realised that wouldn’t fill many trailers, which is what I was looking to do, so I started producing kindling wood to sell on from the off-cuts of the potato boxes. Then I hit upon the idea of re-cycling Jersey’s pallet waste.’