Learning and Growing

The annual pilgrimage to the Golden Triangle in Lincolnshire for the Lincoln Red Cattle breed has been widened somewhat with this year’s new breeding stock purchased from just south of Dundee to Ipswich in Suffolk. A tour of the country is a great way to meet some truly passionate breeders and have the chance to get away. We are looking forward to receiving our new purchases at the end of this month when they have been through their equivalent of a PCR test.

While we were in Suffolk, we had the chance to tour Soterley Estate who are branching out from traditional agriculture and venturing into Regenerative farming and establishing a Food Hub similar to Bowhouse. The head tenant on the site was Hodmadodds, who are specialist small seed processors and packers direct from British farms to wholefood shops and customers. We are delighted to be growing Fava Beans for them next harvest as the climate in Fife is ideally suited to producing this protein bean for human consumption.

With all the crops harvested and green manure (green cover crops to provide soil with roots over winter) sown, we can switch our focus onto some of the tasks which will be improving infrastructure for the future farming system. Teams are fencing at pace again and water is being installed to provide grazing on new areas of grass planted this summer.

We began our estate “walk and talk” sessions this month, with the first visit by all of the team to the Gardens at Balcaskie where we had the chance to admire one of the finest gardens in Scotland and understand first-hand how the transition from manicured and managed to managed and natural leads the way for the rest of the estate. Battling nature is replaced by working with nature and the results are superb. Gavin and Lesley have embraced the transition and the techniques required to produce the desired outcome. I am sure we will all be learning from them.