Mark and Jen Lee, Park House Farm, Cumbria 2/3
(Photo: the farm's gelato)
How is it connected across the farm and beyond?
The biodiversity and wildlife are connected across the farm with the woodland interconnected by the hedgerows, which form a patchwork quilt type shape across the landscape. Our vision of creating more wooded pasture and developing the diversity of flora and fauna with bale grazing hay will improve this richness further.
What are the benefits to the farm and is it increasing its climate and business resilience? If so, in what way?
We have noticed a shift in the climate just in the last 10 years that we have been farming, with a long period without rainfall each year for the past 6 years. Our old system of shallow rooted monoculture ryegrass would have suffered from these episodes. In contrast, having decided to plant deep rooted multi-species leys our grazing rotation has not been affected so far. The clovers and other legumes seem to do particularly well in these dry periods. Our increase in tree cover is also part of our long-term strategy to reduce the heat on the cattle, pigs and soil over the summer and provide shelter during the winter months. Farming regeneratively allows long periods for the soil and fields to recover, which helps with the heavy rainfall periods of which recently we are also seeing more. Creating healthy, deep soil with a decent covering of diverse grasses and legumes allows our small cows to graze at the shoulder ends of the year, often 3 months before and after our neighbours. Farming in this nature-friendly, positive way also provides a fantastic story which is very important when building a brand for the farm and selling the products which ultimately generate the cash needed for the farming enterprise.
Before committing to being 100% pasture-fed we were told it would have a negative effect on animal health and farm profitability and that it wasn’t possible this far north. We are the only certified dairy herd in Cumbria at the moment and it is important that we can show that this way of farming is both sustainable and profitable. What we have discovered is an improvement in herd health and a very significant reduction in our costs of production, simplifying the system for both cows and humans.
