The Farm
Cheshire Coppice
Cheshire Coppice is the name of both the original Farmstead and also that of the Farmhouse adjacent to our house, "Wickets Farmhouse". The farm has been farmed by the Rawlings family since 1883, and the land purchased by Janice and I in 1995, had been farmed by her Family since the early 1900s. We are in effect, third generation family farmers on the same land! I built the Wickets in the early Nineties as a modern Farmhouse. On the whole, I think it works and it is a really comfortable place to be and live in.
Farm and Resources
Cheshire Coppice is around 115 hectares, a traditional Mixed Arable farm on the outskirts of Telford new town. The soil types range from Sand to heavy Clays running from one end of the farm to the other. A typical North Shropshire glacial lake soil is reflected in the mix of Cereals, Potatoes and Permanent Grass. The livestock enterprise consists of our small traditional Dexter Cow suckler herd, producing specialist beef, and the finishing of a few commercial cattle for a local Butcher.
Farm Background and Income Sources
Light land cropping traditionally encompassed sugar beet in the rotation and was an excellent entry into cereal crops until the closure of the local factory last year (207) This year I am growing Winter Wheat and Spring Barley for feed. The Barley was all drilled after 15th February as I now have a large area of land that is within the Countryside Stewardship Scheme and I am annually keeping nearly 14ha in Stubble over the Winter to provide food for bird and mammals.| 2006 Cropping |
in hectares |
| winter wheat |
22.00 |
| forage oats/barley |
5.00 |
| potatoes | 17.00 |
| conservation area |
15.00 |
| grassland | 23.19 |
| countryside stewardship scheme |
35.00 |
The grassland is all permanent and is utilized by the Dexter Suckler cattle and their offspring and also a few other purchased cattle. The purchased/finished cattle enterprise has been slowly being eased "out" as more Dexters are bred up. At the time of writing, we have 27 Cows and a further 3-4 heifers will go to the Bull this summer. The aim is to have 32 odd breeders for next year's calvings. I consider that this will be a sensible number to stop at for the time being so as to allow us to maintain the contact with the Customers for our beef.
One of the major decisions that has had to be made in 2006/7 is whether or not to continue in the dexterbeef production. The huge changes that have been made to European agriculture have only juts started to be felt, but forward thinking Farmers and consumers will be aware that the result of the loss of support (subsidy) payments mean that to be profitable, farms must get a fair price. In the past, the major buyers such as the Supermarkets have been able to purchase beef, lamb and other products at below the cost of production as the support system allowed the producer to make a "profit" from the support money. This has now gone so we have to sell at a realistic price!! To keep the dexter cows is by all economic assessment, barmy. It has cost me in the region of £3-4K/annum to keep the Cows and I struggle to see more than half of this back from my sales! Like most farmers, I look at the long term and hope....
June 2007 Update. After much pondering, I have made the decision that many of the cows will be going over the next year with the inevitable result of a drop in our production of dexterbeef in 2 years time. It is a sad and disappointing decision to have to make, but unless we see some really positive changes in the next 6 months, inevitable :-(
2003 saw the final completion of conversion of nearly 6 hectares of 3rd grade Arable land to Traditional wetland meadows. This was a large project for me and will total 20 hectares when completed. This will be farmed without fertiliser apart from a small amount of FYM and will have only limited stock on it during the Spring to allow a safe nesting area for Lapwing and Curlew, both of which are already on the farm. However, it is not Organic as I am allowed to carry out tasks on the land and on the Stock that would rule out Organic status! Possibly a move may be made in the future if I can see a decent financial return!!
The current usage of set-aside is fixed/flexible and is mainly down to grass that is lightly grazed in the late Autumn/early Winter by the cows. The balance of the setaside is natural regenerated or a wildlife mix, to allow food and cover for the small shoot that exists on the farm. This is run in a very informal manner by myself and a neighbour for a few friends. The benefits of the additional feed and cover that a shoot can provide was made clear last Winter when a neighbouring Villager complained that all his wild garden birds had disappeared, they were in the Game Cover!
Approximately 30 hectares of land has been entered into the Countryside Stewardship scheme for the next 5 years. This is a scheme that has been designed to encourage a regeneration of wildlife on arable land. Anyone visiting the farm to fetch beef is welcome to have a wander around when I can explain more about the scheme and what I am hoping to achieve from it. I hope to post more info on this topic, as and when time allows! See Below!
The one real success in the Conservation Schemes has been the creation of more over wintered habitat and has resulted in a big rise in many and varied birds and also Hares. This I am delighted with, as we had been lurchered out by the local Poachers some years ago. We have seen big increases in Hare numbers and there are some very positive results in some bird species where we had a good breeding reserve anyway. Overwintered bird species show pluses in the over wintered stubbles.