Farming in nature’s image
Gothelney Farm is a small family farm looked after by Fred. Supported by his sister and brother-in-law, Milly and Dan, their mum & dad, Richard and Victoria, and Rosy - the baker behind the Field Bakery. Victoria grew up on the farm with her three sisters Katherine, Charlotte and Caroline and father David Hallett. From the 1980s Caroline nursed the farm through a challenging period. Today Fred continues the farming story with the help of Rubens, who started here at the farm as a full time apprentice over 2 years ago. For 12 years we have been transitioning the farm to agroecology, reimaging a new small farm future where farms feed people justly rather than via an extractive cumbersome & commodified food system.
One farm’s journey towards agroecology
>> Regenerative Agriculture >>
There are many kinds of ‘regenerative farms’ because regenerative agriculture is a way of thinking, of feeling and re-learning the language of soil
>> input hungry monoculture to diversity & resilience >>
10 years ago I was biologically and financially locked into industrial agriculture.
Treading water, year on year I found myself using more fertiliser, fungicide, herbicides to get the same yield. Nitrogen meant weeds, which required herbicides. My stressed and immune compromised crops demanded fungicides which depleted soil biology even further.
>> Look after the soil >>
Earning the right to farm without inputs means considering the soil as a vibrant, living ecosystem. Our rotation reflects a need to prime the soil with enough carbon (foodstuff of bacteria, protozoa and microbes at the base of the soil food web) and care for beneficial insects and microbes that build a resilient low-input farming system.
>> Unpicking the Commodity Trap >>
With no control over price, we had a single lever for profitability: yield.
Reclaiming sovereignty over how our food is produced requires a new kind of food system that forges space for new kinds of value. Fundamentally we believe this requires putting a human scale to everything we do.
>> A Small Food economy >>
Seems to encapsulate the idea that our new food system is human scale, about food rather than commodities, and built on on relationships and collaboration rather than competition & protection.
>> Part of the solution >>
Farming gets a good deal of bad press. The beauty is we have the potential to be part of so many social & ecological solutions
8% of our farm is dedicated to managing habitat for beneficial insects & we reckon to have increased soil organic matter by as much as 4% in 5 years -at 8.9t Carbon per 0.1% per ha thats 356t/ha - potentially 36,000 tonnes of Carbon over the farm!
>> Pigs & grain >>
The pigs justify many of the most positive aspects to our rotation - grazing multispecies herbal leys and cover crops over winter.
Modern grains and input hungry monocultures are two sides of the same coin. We have been exploring ways to embed diversity & a forgotten toolbox of genetic potential into our cereal rotation.