ON THE FARM

Background:

Will and Hilary Chester-Master are the managing partners in a family partnership which decided to convert Abbey Home Farm in 1991. John Newman has been farm manager since Autumn 1992 and a planned conversion to an organic system has been implemented with the assistance of the Organic Advisory Service. The 650 hectare farm is registered with the Soil Association Symbol Scheme and hosts regular educational visits and farm walks. The farm was awarded The Organic Food Awards Producer Of The Year 1999 and The Organic Farm Shop was Organic Retailer Of The Year 2000. Both the farm and the shop were Highly Commended in the 2001 Organic Food Awards.

Organic Enterprises:
Dairy - 25 cows, principally Dairy Shorthorns, and their youngstock
Beef - 60 cows, a pedigree herd of Gloucester Cattle and a commercial herd of South Devons and Hereford Cross Cattle producing quality finishing stock.
Sheep - closed flock of 750 Lleyn ewes and producing lamb and breeding replacements
Cereals - 300ha
Vegetable Production - 15ha
Pigs - Hampshire x Landrace and Glos Old Spot breeding sows, 2 Duroc boars & their progeny
Poultry - egg production (350 hens) and meat birds (4 flocks of 170 birds)

Organic Markets:

The Organic Farm Shop, an award winning organic farm shop, organic café and conference room
On farm dairy and poultry processing
Beef and lamb through the Organic Livestock Co-Operative and The Organic Farm Shop
Fresh vegetables, pork, bacon and eggs through The Organic Farm Shop
Cereals through Organic Arable (founder member)
Seed production for Organic Seed Producers Ltd (founder member)

Conservation:

OELS/HLS Environmental Stewardship Agreement in place since 2006
Bird habitats and feed sources, beetle banks, pond restoration and management, permanent headland margins, preservation of archaeological features, enhanced hedgerow management
Management of SSSI Jurassic limestone to conserve wild flowers and grasses
4,500 m of hedgerows established since 1998, Cotswold stone wall restoration

Public Access:

Greenfield campsite, yurt camp, single yurt, hut and permissive footpath opened October 1999.

Educational visits, open days & Soil Association Organic Demonstration Farm

Farm Tours - see under news for dates and which dates are trailer tours £1 adults 50p under 12's OR farm walks which are free.

These one to one and a half hour rides in a covered trailer/walks are primarily to give our customers an opportunity to see the larger picture of how we farm, and to ask questions about our farming techniques and ongoing conservation programme.  They are suitable for adults and/or accompanied children alike.  If it is a trailor ride, it is covered, but it is advisable to bring warm and wet weather clothing.  Please do book in advance as space is limited.

Farm news - March 2006

As usual looking back from the darkness of short winter days to the year just passed, brings back pleasant memories of long hot summer days, hay making and harvest, and a dry autumn to establish our crops. We produced our highest wheat yield of 7 tonnes per hectare last year and in general harvest went well. As is often the case higher yields are at the expense of quality and most of our wheat has gone into the animal feed market, with a small quantity going for flaking and for biscuit making. A few of the field bean yields were a little disappointing but we had fine weather and so were able to avoid drying a lot of the crops.

The good late summer weather allowed us to plant a large area of forage rape, mustard and turnip mix as a green manure to utilize nitrogen in the soil and to provide a grazing area for the sheep over the winter. This is a good example of how organic agriculture requires a systems approach, and how different enterprises can work together providing overall benefits for the farm. Autumn planting generally went well. The cereal crops have all established and look good, and the last fields of winter field beans, planted in mid November, are just showing through.

The pigs add their part to the farm’s rotation by adding fertility to the soil and helping with dock control to some extent by digging up the roots and leaving them on the surface where they dry out. Our best spring wheat yields to date have been following the pigs and the next crop again also seems to benefit from that boost in fertility.

The forage legumes, key to producing soil fertility, are particularly well utilized by the cattle. We are able to produce meat and milk from these forage crops whilst the clover is “fixing” nitrogen in the soil, and most importantly the cattle produce an excellent source of manure, which we turn into “compost”, to return organic matter and more nutrients to the soil. The improvements we have made in soil structure and quality, and continued progress in overall production, certainly shows that our organic system is sustainable (John).  

Farm news - June 2005

As I have said before farming is by its very nature seasonal and to a large extent repetitive. Each year there are the same sorts of operations to be done on the land, and although the final timing is hugely influenced by the weather, the seasons dictate the timing of planting and harvest and when the animals are outside grazing or inside eating their diets of conserved forage. When the animals are outside life is relatively easy for both them and us as they are able to feed themselves from their pasture, but when they are housed the workload is very different. This is an insight into some of the routine work involved on the farm.

A typical housed dairy cow's day would start with milking at around 6.00am. Towards the end of milking (at about 7.15am), the cows are moved out of their barns and the overnight accumulated muck from the feed standings and surrounding areas is scraped up into a weekly store. Their yards are bedded up with fresh straw blown in by a machine. The cows then return to their barns. Any of yesterday's feed left in their feed troughs is cleaned away and then enough feed for their diet for that day (around 50kgs of fresh weight) is mixed up and fed out. This is done by weighing various ingredients such as rolled cereal, ground up beans and two or three forages into our mixer wagon. These feeds make up a "complete diet" and provide the milking cow with the nutrition she needs to produce her daily output of milk. This all happens by about 9.30am. The rest of the cow's morning and early afternoon is spent eating, drinking (50-75 litres per day), ruminating (re-digesting feed) and resting. Afternoon milking takes place at about 4.00pm after the cows feed standings have been scraped out again. 

All the cattle are housed at some stage during the winter and all these other groups of housed animals have to be fed and bedded daily. Barns and yards are mucked out completely on a regular basis, generally about every 6-8 weeks. The animals still outside (pigs and chickens) also have to be fed and even the grazing ones (sheep) will need some supplementary feeding during the winter.
It has been a long and at times difficult winter with crops difficult to plant last autumn and high levels of feed and bedding used. The spring always brings new hopes for a better harvest, and we are hoping for better weather this year. The extremes of weather we seem to be having now are making farming more challenging. We do need that elusive balance of rain and sun to help us to produce the food we all enjoy. John


Farm visits showing you how we farm, why we are organic, our conservation projects etc etc.
Suitable for adults or children accompanied by adults. Approx 1 and a half hours. 10.30am. Booking essential. For dates see news.

John Farm Manager

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Abbey Home Farm - Organic Producer of the Year 1999

The Organic Farm Shop - Organic Retailer of the Year 2000