Second-generation farmer Hugh Shedden, of, Shipton by Beningbrough, near York, says economic shift is reaping rewards
A second generation pig farmer has told how his enterprise faces less risk after taking part in a major environmental baselining survey demonstrating how local farming businesses can balance sustainability with profitability.
The scale of the Soil Association Exchange survey, funded by Lloyds Banking Group, was unprecedented, assessing 685 farms, across 238,000 hectares of UK farmland. Six areas of environmental impact were measured on each farm, including soil health, biodiversity, carbon and water.
Second-generation farmer and Nuffield Scholar, Hugh Shedden, who farms 1,550 hectares at Shedden Farms, Shipton by Beningbrough, near York, says the assessment has strengthened the farm’s focus on sustainability, and provided practical insights on improving its environmental and financial resilience.
“We’ve spent the past five years improving the farm business to drive efficiency, enhance production and build resilience and this started with a business model shift,” says Hugh.
“The traditional farrow-to-finishing system wasn’t stacking up financially, so we took a leap and moved to contract rearing for Karro Foods in 2019, finishing up to 25,000 pigs a year.”
He has since invested in new straw-based finishing facilities and on-farm feed milling to reduce emissions and improve efficiency. Shedden Farms has cut its reliance on imported soya, a key contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, by incorporating liquid co-products such as whey and wheat distiller’s syrup into pig diets. This feeding strategy has enhanced growth rates, with pigs leaving the farm sooner, further reducing their environmental impact.
“The liquid co-products come from human food waste, and because the carbon is already accounted for in the human food chain, they’re effectively carbon-negative,” explains Hugh.
Having undergone the assessment, Shedden Farms scored highly on soil structure, water management, and carbon balance. Acting on the assessment’s key recommendations, the farm’s future plans include introducing herbal leys to boost soil organic matter and installing rainwater harvesting systems to further optimise water use. Both are supported by schemes such as the Sustainable Farming Incentive.
As well as these improvements, Shedden Farms is enhancing the local landscape through hedgerow planting, wildflower corridors, and precision application of nutrients, balancing modern production with care for the countryside. “The data from this survey is a starting point,” says Hugh. “We’re working through the recommendations and benchmarking against other producers. It’s about making the economics stack up while doing what’s right for the land; often, the two go hand-in-hand.”
“We now have much more control than we did five years ago and face less risk. It’s small, practical changes like this that add up.”
Shedden Farms is among over 80 per cent of participating farms that have received financial backing from Lloyds Banking Group, to participate in the survey as part of the bank’s support for farmers through the agricultural transition.