Jamie's Farm: How a dairy project is bringing young people into farming

“It’s going well,” says Mark whose role is not just as the farmer but also one of the main players in Jamie’s Farm, a concept that began through farming and education visionary Jamie Feilden who had worked on Mark’s father’s farm in Bath.

“The principle of Jamie’s Farm, that sees Haugh Field as the concept’s latest farm, is to run fully working farms where young people can come and see what farming and rural life is like, where they can get that often life-changing moment.

“We encourage any young people to come, whether from disadvantaged backgrounds, all kinds of different needs, and we’ve had great success stories.

“Haugh Field is now one of our six farms across the country. They are not petting farms. It’s not about coming along and just stroking an animal. It’s a touch of real life, real farming and what we’ve done since we started has led to some coming into agriculture as their job and way of life.

“Farming is my passion, it’s why I get up in the morning and what I will spend every hour of every day working on, as my wife will tell you. But I also like being around people. Farming can be quite an isolated job at times. The Jamie’s Farm concept brings me a lot of people and allows me to share my passion and what we get up to.

Mark is a farmer’s son from Bath. His father farms in the south-west and has a commercial flock of 1500 North Country Mules. Mark’s farming apprenticeship was on a 3000-acre arable and dairy farm. Coming north to run Haugh Field after having spent eight years on another Jamie’s Farm in Hereford has been a happy move with a family link for Mark.

“I’ve always loved the north. My dad grew up in the Lake District where his dad was a first-generation farmer. He’s bought sheep from there for the last 45 years, and you can’t help falling in love with countryside up here.

Mark says that Lake District connection is one that he is drawing on an at Haugh Field.

“We’ve 450 Swaledale ewes here which we are shepherding for a family friend of ours from the Lake District. We have them all year round, lamb them and receive an income for looking after them, but they are not owned by us, even though I look after them as though they are my own. They are draft ewes that arrive in September, lamb from late March and are here through to next September when they get sold along with their 600-700 Mule lambs that they have reared.

“Our Lake District friends have a huge flock and this is a way they have of getting us to shepherd some of them. They know I’m going to look after them high welfare.

“We own all of the stock on our other farms, but this takes the risk out of owning our own stock, especially when we’re just starting out.

“The ewes are all bred up on the Cumbrian fells and will have had two or three years there before coming to us. They are crossed with the Bluefaced Leicester tup to create the Mules and then they are sold as draft ewes and the lambs sold as breeding ewe lambs or very strong store lambs at J36 Livestock Market.

“Our Lake District friends see how the sheep benefit and thrive here. They are good strong ewes from being on the fells and here they are all grass fed and give good Mule lambs.

The cattle enterprise is made up of two strands, Mark’s own suckler herd and operating a B&B cattle operation.

“We currently have 32 head of our own cattle that are mainly Blue Greys and some Highlands,” says Mark. “There are 10 cows and the rest followers. We are crossing them this year with the Black Limousin to get a bit of shape and for ease of calving.

“We’ve only had the Blue Greys for about 12 months so we’re just starting to get through to fattening. When we do, we will put some through the freezer for the young people who come here to learn from. We will be taking them up to 20 months to sell at Skipton as strong stores.

“The Blue Greys are a great fit for the regenerative side, as are the Highlands, as they are quite hardy and don’t take a lot of inputs. When they come in they are more than happy with silage and haylage. They calved in June this year.

“We’ve also had cows and heifers on a B&B arrangement the past two years. We had 120 the first year and 80 this past year, but we may take a break on them this year as we have a lot of infrastructure work at present.

Mark says that when he came to Haugh Field he couldn’t believe the condition the soil was in and he immediately set to work on it.

“The soil had taken a lot of abuse as it had been heavily slurry fertilised. There was no life in it. I’ve been trying to get micro-organisms back into soil to allow everything to work together to create greater grass and we’ve seen quite a big change in the last two years.

“We are not using sprays, not using fertilisers and only applying minimal amounts of slurry where needed. I’m using microbial compost trying to get that life back, trying for maximum soil quality from minimal input.

“We are farming in a regenerative way, trying to improve our soils by rotational grazing out in fields and the whole farm is in Mid-Tier Stewardship.

“We also have a couple of pedigree Welsh pigs in the woods and 25 free range hens providing eggs for the young people to try their hand at baking.

Mark wears a few different caps.

“My roles include managing this farm, overseeing the other farms and I spend 38 hours a week with young people here 40 weeks a year.

“The farms are run separate to the delivery of what we do for young people. The farms have to be run commercially. Jamie’s Farm is a charity and we have a team that works on sponsorship of all kinds.

Find out more. https://jamiesfarm.org.uk/