farmer of year
This years Countryside Farmer of the Year Award has been given to two cousins, Brian and Patrick Barker, from Suffolk. The award was given to the cousins for their work in the farming industry including their commitment to wildlife on their farm Lodge and Kiln Farm at Westhorpe near Stowmarket. Their work in conservation included work to help barn owls and yellowhammers. The award was presented by Natural England’s Chair Poul Christensen.
Natural England’s David Whiting is Brian and Patrick’s Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) adviser. He said: “Their passion shines through. The whole family, including those that do not actively work on the farm, are committed to farming in a way that is both profitable but also kind to the environment.
“In Brian and Patrick you have two cousins successfully working together on a family farm and displaying incredible passion for British agriculture as well as wildlife. They are equally happy talking farming as they are ringing buzzards, or photographing the wildlife of Westhorpe.
“They are great ambassadors for what can be achieved through Natural England’s stewardship schemes and very deserving of the title of Countryside Farmers of the Year.”
The two cousins took over the 1270 acre farm 6 years ago and quickly joined the entry level stewardship (ELS) and HLS programme. “HLS has given us a good start,” said Brian. “We did most of the application process ourselves to show our parents we were serious. We also wanted to put our own stamp on the farm.
“We are very conscious of looking to the future and want to take the farm forward in our own way, taking wildlife into consideration with everything we do and HLS helps us do that.”
The two cousins have changed the format of the farm from a traditional arable pig farm in to a sustainable and ‘green’ farming environment. A range of habitats have been introduced and manged including hedgerows, ponds and grasslands. By using a range of conservation management techniques they have been able to introduce a range of new species to the farm including 20 new bird species. One of the techniques that the cousins are using is the ‘green hay seed’ technique. This involves using mown grass from the village greed to seed their fields with. This gives a much wider diversity of plants and grasses than using commercial seed.
The conservation work undertaken by the cousins include reverting field margins back to grassland and connecting up a number of grassland areas on their farm with wildlife corridors. Some areas have also been planted with wild bird seed grasses and plants. Over the next 10 years there are pans to clear 30 ponds on the farm at a rate of 3 each year to further improve habitats on the farm.
“I looked at the habitats we have got on the farm and they are all unique. We’ve got ponds, hedgerows, a little bit of grassland, the farm yard, the village green and then I looked at what the neighbours had,” says Patrick.
“When you look at it, it’s not very pulled together so I came up with this idea to connect the various areas with watercourses, fields being transformed back to grass and hedges.”
Brian and Patrick have also reduced the amount of machinery used on the farm from six tractors and a specialist crawler to two tractors and a crawler, which has led to a variety of savings in maintenance, labour and fuel.
“We know we are definitely more efficient than we were a few years ago and dare we say it, more efficient than our dads were,” says Brian.
In addition to undertaking conservation methods the cousins also take part in the open access programme that is a requirement under the HLS programme. This has led to over 600 people visiting the farm last year to see how modern farming is undertaken. Groups have come from history societies, ramblers and students.
The Countryside Farmer of the Year Award is part of the annual awards issued by Farmers Weekly.
photo credit: Farmers Weekly
