by A Norfolk farm says a “risk mitigation” strategy of growing cover crops and grazing them with sheep has proved worth the wet winter of storms and floods.
Pages Farm, at Wood Dalling, between Fakenham and Aylsham, introduced the new system to protect its two most valuable resources – soil and water.
The family partnership, which farms 1,858 hectares of mainly arable land, includes Peter Perry-Warnes, his wife Anne, his brother Tom and son Rick, whose wife Hannah also works in the office.
The Perry-Warnes family at Pages Farm, Wood Dalling. From left, Tom, Hannah and Rick with their two year old son Henry, Anne and Peter. (Image: Sonya Duncan)
To protect the land during the winter, around 400 hectares are planted with cover crops – a combination of plants with different rooting depths to improve the soil structure, allowing faster drainage of surface water, and keeping nutrients in the field where they can benefit from the next food. crop, rather than polluting rivers during rainstorms.
Most of the plants there are grazed by around 1,000 sheep – supplied by 18-year-old Norfolk shepherd Alex Lockhart.
In addition to the environmental benefits, the family said this provides an additional economic benefit of supporting a young farmer in his efforts to expand his business.
Sheep grazing on a cover crop at Wood Dalling (Image: Sonya Duncan)
Rick Perry-Warnes said: “The roots go down, which helps the soil structure, but probably the biggest thing is that the plant takes all the nutrients out of the soil during the winter, which is the months they are usually wet, so it stops the nutrients from leaching down into the ground drains and watercourses, so they should be kept in the plant.
“And when you graze them the sheep are a natural spreader of mud – they eat it, and then as they work their tails they’re spreading it back onto the ground, which puts the nutrients back on top of the soil.
“You really notice the benefit of a cover crop in a year like this – anywhere the soil is in good health, where it’s been properly cultivated, looked after and not damaged, it’s the bars look great.
“Wherever the land is badly cultivated, crops look drowned and terrible. A healthy soil is beneficial in drought as well as in wet periods.”
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The farm uses a specialist grass mix for two-thirds of its cover crops, including forage rape, tillage radishes, turnips, bersum clover and turnips. Another third would be winter oats, oil radish and phacelia, on heavier land not suitable for grazing.
“We use as many different plant species as we can,” Rick said. “The oil radish is really deep rooting, and the oats are shallow rooting so you have to try to get a root system through the profile down to a foot deep during the winter.
“It keeps the soil open, and it keeps it alive. The worms love it. And the more worms you have, the more holes there are to filter the water.”
Peter Perry-Warnes (left) with his son Rick (centre) and Frontier farm trader Richard Grant, on cover crop land being grazed by sheep (Image: Sonya Duncan)
Peter Perry-Warnes said the manure from the grazing animals eliminated the need for artificial phosphate and potash on the land.
But he is also proud of the opportunities this system has given a young sheep farmer.
“It’s helping a young fella get a step up the ladder, as opposed to a young fella going into farming?” he said. “We are very happy to help him.”
18-year-old Norfolk sheep farmer Alex Lockhart (Image: Alex Lockhart)
Constable Melton-based Alex Lockhart runs his livestock enterprise with his father Bruce, managing and fattening 5,500 lambs on farms across the county during the winter, as a “bed and breakfast” service for other sheep owners.
The work on Pages Farm is also helping his ambitions to increase his own herd of 350 sheep, he said.
“It’s becoming more and more common for farmers to put in a cover crop for the winter, and because of what I’m trying to do it’s really important that we’re able to work with those farmers and that they give us the opportunity put lambs on the cover crops,” he said.
“I wouldn’t have this opportunity if people like that hadn’t given me the opportunity to put some lambs there. It’s allowing me to grow my business and it’s also allowing me to grow my own flock at a good pace. .”
Straw turnip, part of the cover crop mix at Pages Farm (Image: Sonya Duncan)
Ben Steed, regional sales manager for Frontier Agriculture, which advises the farm on its agronomy, said payments are now available through the government’s new Sustainable Farming Incentive to help farmers establish cover crops.
“There are some advantages,” he said. “Farmers have been doing this kind of thing for the right reasons for a long time, but finally you can find funding and reward for doing it.
“I hope it encourages more of us to do this kind of thing.”
