RUSHALL FARM FACT FILE

Introduction
Physical Features
Machinery
Land Use
Rotational Farming
Set-a-side
Stewardship
Woodland
Animals
Suckler Cows
Sheep System
The Principles of Organic Farming

Introduction

Farmer: Mr J.Bishop
Landowner: W.Cumber & Son (Theale) LTD.
Address: Rushall Farm
Scratchface Lane
Bradfield
Berkshire
RG7 6DL
Grid Reference: SU 589726
Size: 1046 acres or 422 hectares (1 hectare = 100m x 100m) includes 165 acres of park land on the Englefield Estate (which we are paid to graze) and 100 acres of woodland. Also included is 83 acres of land in conversion (not yet registered organic), 40 acres of this is water meadows and there is another 43 acres of gravel top which is currently down to spring barley undersown with clover.
Tenancy:John Bishop is the manager of Rushall Farm. Most of the land is owner occupied, but some is share farmed, and some tenanted. The farm owner, William Cumber, lives on a second farm at Marcham in Oxfordshire, Manor Farm. This 1500 acre farm recently sold a dairy herd which was milked robotically. It has a large pig unit including some rare breeds (Black Berkshires and Gloucester Old Spots) and beef cattle. A new chicken unit of approximately 2000 birds produces eggs for Waitrose. A variety of cereal crops are also grown.
Recent changes: On 1st July 2000, Rushall began farming organically. Rushall farm is Soil Association registered as organic.

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Physical Features

The farm is located in the Pang Valley part of the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It occupies land stretching north from the river Pang between Bradfield and Stanford Dingley. There are some steeply sloping areas.

Soil types
There are many different soil types here. These include rich, wet alluvium immediately beside the river, loams, gravels, sands and clays. Beneath all of these soils you will find chalk. An exposed chalk face is Berkshire’s first RIGS (regionally important geological site). It is one of only two places in the country where the K-T boundary is visible (this is the point 65 million years ago when the mass extinction of the dinosaurs took place). Analysis of the chalk at Rushall Farm from this period shows an iridium peak.  Iridium is only found in large amounts in meteorites which adds weight to the impact theory as a mechanism for the extinction of the dinosaurs.

Altitude
Altitude ranges from 55 – 115 metres above sea level.

Rainfall
Rainfall is typically around 660mm per year. However in the last few years we’ve seen a change with very dry spells being interspersed with heavy downpours. Warmer winter are also producing more open (outdoors) grazing for livestock

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Machinery

The vehicles which we have at Rushall Farm are listed below.

• 5 tractors include 2 reasonably modern John Deeres, an older John Deere, a Case and a Ford
• Pickup
• Clio van
• Combine Harvester
• An all terrain telescopic forklift or teleporter. This is a JCB 536 and is an ex-demonstration model costing £39,200.
• Balers, trailers, plough, seed drill and various harrows and other implements for working down the soil.
• There is also an 800 tonne grain store and drier.

As farm profits are low at the moment the current policy is to repair existing machinery rather than renewing. This means that repair costs are accepted as being high but the cost of depreciation is very low (£7784 in 2007 but this will rise because of the new JCB teleporter).

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Land Use

Rushall Farm started to farm organically from July 1st 2000. We were able to sell our produce as organic from the 1st of July 2002 (conversion to organic land takes 2yrs).

The approximate figures above demonstrate the changes in land use since going organic. Essentially the land has changed from being 60% arable to 60% grazing (more clover & grass leys). This change reflects the need to increase soil fertility through the use of nitrogen fixing plants such as beans and clover. Animal manure from the grazing livestock is also an important addition to sustainable production in an organic system. The amount of pasture on the farm has also risen as a way of providing safe parasite free grazing for the livestock. Low stocking rates are essential in organic livestock systems.

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Rotational Farming

'Crop rotation' is the practice of regularly changing the type of crops grown in a field. Alternatives might be 'continuous cropping' or 'permanent grazing/grass'. Rotation helps combat problems like pest build up and fertility loss which happen with continuous cropping. It is therefore particularly important in organic system where we need to maintain soil fertility which we do through growing beans, adding manure and clover (an essential ingredient) in the leys. At Rushall farm we use both White and Red clover. White clover self seeds and can be found in a ley for many years. Red clover is very productive over 2 years. It is a bulkier plant with high protein content which makes it very good for silage. However you shouldn’t feed it to ewes about to be tupped (mated with the ram) as it contains oestrogens which prevent ovulation thus making it difficult for them to conceive.

Crops that we grow at Rushall include:

• wheat (for milling into flour, currently fetching £300 per ton)
• barley (for malting, currently fetching £300 per ton)
• oats (for porridge etc., currently fetching £275 per ton)
• beans (animal feed, currently fetching £300 per ton)
• triticale (a wheat / rye cross) (animal feed, currently fetching £265 per ton)
• red and white clover and grass leys (grazing, silage and hay) The crop and grazing rotation at Rushall Farm is over a 9yr period.

The length of this rotation is restricted by the build up of weeds. Some marginal land where the soil is poor (heavy clay, sand or gravels) is permanent grazing because it would be impossible to grow crops on these fields.

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Set-a-side

Set-a-side was introduced by the government to reduce over production of food. Land that is set-a-side cannot be used for food production and these fields are usually left empty. In 2007 set-a-side was a minimum of 8% of arable land. Much of the set-a-side at Rushall Farm was some distance from the farm itself, near to the M4 motorway. Last year around 12% of our arable land was in set-a-side. Aside from receiving payments for not farming this land, the set-a-side scheme also benefits wildlife. Organic set-a-side can also be used as a time to clean up the field using a fallow. However in 2008 there is a worldwide shortage of grain and thus there is no requirement for set-a-side. This shortage has resulted from poor harvests in the wheat belts of Eurasia and North America, an increase in demand from developing countries and also a change of land use from food production to bio fuels.

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Stewardship

Stewardship is an environmental scheme run by the government which helps to encourage environmentally friendly farming. Under this scheme the farm has received money from the government for planting hedges and managing one field as a grass/wildflower meadow. These areas provide good wildife habitat. There is now 300 acres of stewardship land that is managed much of it is parkland conversion at the Englefield Estate which has a native mix of grasses. There is also water meadows by the Pang (at Lone Barn & the Dairies) and the Kennet (at Ufton Nervet). These sites have low levels of grazing and no feed is brought in. This should encourage wildlife and a diversity of herbage.

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Woodland

The 40 hectares (100 acres) of ancient woodland at Rushall farm has a management plan. This plan sets out the work that is needed in the woodland, e.g. clearing the large trees from certain areas and planting new ones. Due to financial cuts that were made across the farm, little management work has been carried out in the woods in recent years, which is disappointing in view of all the work down in previous years. We had hoped that farming organically would make more profit for the farm and that some of the money could be invested in managing the woodland again.

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Animals

The permanent grass and rotational farming systems used at Rushall Farm mean that the animals are a very important part of the farm. The soils at Rushall Farm are not fertile enough to allow continuous cropping so grazing animals allow the soils to rest while their manure adds to the fertility of the soil. Rotation of grazing animals, between cattle and sheep, is very important in the control of stomach worms. Effectively it works out at 35% cattle and 65% sheep at Rushall Farm in terms of grazing and organic advice is to have this round the other way in order to clean up the pastures and control internal parasites. We alleviate this by finishing a lot of lambs in the autumn on clean pasture (previously used by diary cows) at Manor Farm in Oxfordshire and also at the Englefield Estate.

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Suckler Cows

Suckler cows are raised for beef. The calf is left with its mother for almost a year and weaned in time for the cow to rest shortly before the next calving. The herd here is based on a French breed called 'Saler'. This is a hardy and primitive breed of cattle used in France for beef and also producing cheese. These cows were chosen because the quality of their meat is high, and the calves are born reasonably easily which causes fewer problems for the mothers. They are now being crossed with Aberdeen Angus bulls. The Saler seems to be a feisty breed and the cross with the Angus has calmed down the offspring. Also Aberdeen Angus is a name the consumer knows so it makes the beef very marketable. Finally our Angus bulls (Eric & Ernie) were polled (have no horns, genetically) and this trait is passed on to their offspring which means we don’t have to dehorn them and generally makes it safer for all concerned. The cows graze in the summer and are kept indoors throughout the winter when they eat feed straw and silage (pickled grass). Sales of beef are predominantly to Sheepdrove Organic Farm in Lambourn and are slaughtered and processed at Laverstoke Park in Hampshire (Overton). Some are also sold through our own retail outlet at Manor Farm. Cattle going for slaughter weigh about 600kg with a carcass weight of 300kg they fetch £900-£1000 (i.e. £3/kg).

This year only the 2 yr old steers (castrated bullocks) will go for slaughter, all the heifers (cows yet to calve) will go to the bull as we are trying to increase the size of the herd. These are known as bulling heifers and there are 18 of them.

The new bulls (there are 3 shared between Rushall Farm & Manor Farm) are known as Stabilisers. They are a cross of 4 beef breeds perfected over the last 22 years.

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Sheep System

The sheep graze outdoors for most of the year, usually on grass and clover. The sheep are then brought indoors for up to a couple of months in the winter / early spring when they have their lambs (in March). Whilst indoors, their feed includes silage, and a mix of beans and oats which is high in energy and protein (14%). The primary breeding ewes are called Hartlines. They are very “milky” and good at producing twins. The ewes are scanned in January and are this year averaging 1.81 lambs each (last year was 1.75). This year any female lambs that stay on the farm will require double tagging i.e. 2 ear tags. The colour this year is purple.

Rams are brought to produce good conformation lambs which will grow on to sale for meat. The meat rams typically used are Suffolks and Southdowns. Suffolks are crossed with Hartlines to produce wethers (castrated ram lambs) for meat whilst the females are used for breeding. These are crossed with Southdowns to produce an excellent finished lamb.

Sales of lamb are approximately 1/3rd locally to farm shops (Wickcroft, Cumbers in Marcham & Sheepdrove Organic Farm in Lambourn). The remaining 2/3rd of lambs currently go to an abattoir in Wales and the end user is Tesco. The wool from the sheep sheared summer 2007 was sold to the Wool Marketing Board. It is very much a by-product. The total wool clip (how much we produced) came to £352 off 1000 sheep or 2.5 tonnes of wool. However we also received an extra 50p/lamb for organic sheepskins from those lambs going for slaughter in Wales (Merthyr Tydfil). So far £90 for 180 organic sheepskins.

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THE PRINCIPLES OF ORGANIC FARMING

• Co-exist with rather than dominate natural systems.
• Sustain or build soil fertility.
• Minimise pollution and damage to the environment.
• Minimise the use of non-renewable resources.
• Ensure the ethical treatment of animals.
• Protect and enhance the farm environment with particular regard to conservation and wildlife.
• Consider the wider social and ecological impact of agricultural systems.
• Maintain or develop valuable existing landscape features and adequate habitats for wildlife with particular regard to endangered species.

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