How we Farm
What we can do is tell you exactly how we farm now, what we are trying to change and why a small holding has made us think very carefully about scale.
Grass in summer. Our own haylage in
winter.
Our Herefords are fed on grass through the grazing season and grass haylage made from our own fields through winter. They also have access to mineral supplementation where needed so their nutritional needs are covered.
We move the cattle, rather than leaving
every field open all year.
Our fields are rotationally grazed, with cattle moved every few weeks depending on grass and conditions. That gives grazed areas time away from cattle and helps us manage the limited acreage more deliberately.
Some jobs suit a Highland.
Our Highlands spend time on some of the rougher ground and are well suited to wintering outside in appropriate conditions. Different cattle can play different roles on a small holding; that is one reason we do not intend the whole herd to become identical.
We still do a surprising amount by hand.
Bedding cattle, feeding, brushing and halter training means we spend a lot of ordinary time around the herd. That is good for us, but it is also part of why we know individual temperaments so well. We are working towards a herd in which young cattle are comfortable being haltered and calmly handled, not because every cow needs to perform, but because good handling makes everyday management easier.
Where we’re trying to improve.
We currently use artificial fertiliser on some fields. Over time, we want to reduce reliance on it and explore more natural fertility and lower-input approaches that work on our ground.
Regenerative farming is an aspiration and a direction of travel, not a certification or a finished claim. We would rather document the changes honestly than announce that we are perfect before the evidence exists.
Small is a choice. The system still matters.
A smaller animal is not automatically better for the environment simply because it is smaller. What matters is how the whole farm works. We chose smaller cattle because they fit our acreage, handling ambitions and business model and because “fit” is a much more useful idea to us than simply “bigger”.