LEAF’s EBrief 13th September 2012: LEAF Marque at the Grange Farm, Mickle Trafford and more

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LEAF’s EBrief 13th September 2012 FARMERS CONSUMERS FOOD CHAIN
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Caroline Drummond

All change at the top

Last week saw the loss of two of our most senior Ministers. Both Jim Paice and Caroline Spelman have been good friends of LEAF and shown tremendous support for many of our activities. On behalf of LEAF, I would like to express our most sincere thanks to them both for the keen interest they have shown in our work in delivering more sustainable farming systems.

We now look to the future. It is encouraging that both Owen Paterson and David Heath both come from rural communities and are reported to have a good understanding of the industry.

New arrivals always signal fresh opportunities. We will now work hard to build strong bridges with the new team; getting them out onto Demonstration Farms, making them aware of our technical tools to help farmers address key environmental issues, explaining the many ways we engage with consumers to bring them closer to food, farming and nature and ensuring they support farmers who are producing food following LEAF’s IFM principles.

We’ll be knocking loudly on their doors in the months to come.

Caroline Drummond

LEAF Chief Executive

@LEAFChief on twitter

LEAF Marque at the Grange Farm, Mickle Trafford

Huw Rowlands farms at The Grange Farm, Mickle Trafford. As a guest contributor on our blog, he tells us of his journey to becoming LEAF Marque certified and how it has affected the way he farms now. The following is an extract from Huw’s blog and you can read the whole story here.

Mickle Trafford

“Here at The Grange Farm in Mickle Trafford we run Red Poll cattle as a single suckler herd, producing top quality beef which we wholesale to local pubs and restaurants and to Williamsons Butchers in Waterloo, Liverpool, and retail from the farm and at various farmers markets. It’s a far cry from eight years ago when the farm was losing money on milk and was home to a herd of Friesian cattle. The farm is in both Entry Level and Higher Level Stewardship with Educational Access, and we host around sixty visits a year including taking part in Open Farm Sunday and Heritage Open Days, and are heavily involved with the Cheshire Wildlife Trust’s Gowy Connect Project. We grow small areas of low input spring barley, game cover crop and pollen and nectar mix as part of our Stewardship Scheme, and have ten hectares of poplar plantations for commercial use. Perhaps the main change has been the philosophy of how we farm. Rather than working against the land, we now work with it.”

“In 2009, we stopped using manufactured fertilisers, partly because of cost, but mainly because we had discovered that our soils were degraded, and this was contributing to major problems with the health of our Red Poll herd. We now use a small amount of treated sewage cake and a vast quantity of green compost from Waste Recycling Group at the nearby Gowy Landfill Site. Being fairly extensive, the next logical step was to consider becoming fully organic, but we were prevented from doing so by two factors.”

You can read the whole story from Huw in his blog post here, and you can find out about the LEAF Marque here.

Lamb Supplement

‘Sustainable Lamb’ now available

Ahead of Livestock 2012, we produced a new newsletter supplement. The supplement includes farmer case studies and a range of articles from industry leaders. The case studies highlight ways in which LEAF’s IFM can benefit lamb producers, which include helping to reduce forage and feeding costs and increase production of grass fed lambs, through the management and composition of grazing swards and growing of other fodder crops. You can download Sustainable Lamb in PDF and ePub formats for ease of viewing on iPhone, iPad and other compatible devices.

ATP

Advanced Training Partnership

This Advanced Training Partnership provides a unique opportunity for professionals within the agri-food supply chain to access the latest relevant research from a host of academic institutions in a format most suited to their needs. All of the training is at postgraduate level and comprises workshops and flexible distance learning. Click on the links below for more information on the training programmes and how to apply.

Advanced Training Partnership – Sustainable and Efficient Food Production

Advanced Training Partnership – AgriFood

LNFYS

LNFYS says thank you!

Let Nature Feed Your Senses has been running now for over three years. Over 11, 800 people with a disability, aged 65 or over or from an area of high social deprivation have participated in sensory rich visits on farms across England. The success of the project has been thanks to the enthusiasm of our hosts, who have whole heartedly embraced the challenge of making visits as sensory rich and engaging as possible for so many different groups=2E We are also grateful for visitors’ enthusiasm to try something different and get out onto farms to get hands on with nature, food and farming. A big thank you to everyone and we hope the good work will continue! Take a look at the latest Let Nature Feed Your Senses newsletter for a roundup of all our news, activity ideas, great pictures and lots more!

LEAF (Linking Environment And Farming) is a registered charity (No. 1045781)

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