Farm Of The Week: Wildlife thriving in old mining country

Going green is a habit for Helen and David Rhodes and they’ve been rewarded with a legacy to call their own and a premium rate for their milling wheat which is used in loaves of bread you’ll find in your local supermarket.

New Hall Farm, in Ardsley, on the urban fringe of Wombwell near Barnsley, is one of just two Conservation Grade farms in Yorkshire. The agri-environment scheme means ten per cent of their land is dedicated to managing natural habitats such as hedgerows, woodland and grasslands to support birds, small mammals and insects.

The pay-off is a guaranteed premium over the market price for their wheat; an extra £7 a tonne, which is supplied to Allied Mills in Manchester and used in bread brands such as Allinson and Burgen. Each year the farm yields around 800 tonnes of Conservation Grade wheat, 600 tonnes of feed barley, 120 tonnes of oilseed rape and 60 tonnes of beans.

Conservation pays but it’s also something the pair believe in, having started out planting hedgerows as recipients of hedgerow incentive payments from their local council 30 years ago. The 800-acre farm is also under High Level Countryside Stewardship, a scheme which sees annual payments made to farmers for each hectare used to enhance and conserve the landscape, wildlife and history.

Helen says: “It’s really important to get that balance between food production but not to wipe out the biodiversity. By effectively having ten per cent of our farm down to conservation measures we’re specifically targeting wildlife and supporting them.

“We feel as though we’re doing something we can pass on to another generation. We’re not leaving something that’s been totally denuded. We’re producing an affordable food without disregarding biodiversity. It’s really rewarding.”

By reintroducing hedgerows, planting oak, ash and willow trees among others, maintaining around 120 acres of grassland and sowing small plots with bird seed, they’ve been able to help various species flourish, including barn owls, yellowhammers, bullfinches, grey partridges and skylarks.

Barns owls love to hunt by flying over corridors of vegetation and the hedgerows and buffers of tussocky grass a couple of metres either side make ideal territory for their prey. Half a dozen or so boxes are located at high vantage points around the farm to provide barn owls with places to nest. Helen says nurturing barn owls is a great way to monitor biodiversity because their survival relies on a ready supply of small mammals for food.

It was a gradual process that saw this farm become the wildlife haven it is now.

Helen explains: “It was David’s grandfather on his mother’s side who bought the farm in 1953. They used to farm in Dumfries and had five milk rounds. They came here because there was a ready market with all the miners living around here. This was a mining landscape. You could look out the window at slag heaps but they’ve all gone now.

“It became a traditional mixed use farm with beef and dairy cattle and pigs and laying hens at one point.”

In time, David’s parents, Ken and Margaret, retired and David and his brother Douglas farmed but they would be faced with a tough decision.

Helen says: “We were milking 200 cows in 2005 and we came to a point where the dairy plant needed big investment – millions of pounds. We had a choice of either investing or selling the buildings down there, so we sold them and David’s brother took the cows to Warwickshire.”

As a result the family moved to another farmyard on the same land where there were two derelict buildings and a farmhouse, and switched to arable farming.

David’s parents were living in the farmhouse so the couple found themselves residing in caravans with their two children, Jack, now 19, and Caroline, 17, while they converted one of the derelict properties, a 16th century mill, into their new home. They have been carrying out the project themselves and it continues to be a ‘work in progress’ although they were able to move into the building a year ago.

The second derelict building, a cruck barn which dates back to 1529, has also been lovingly restored, with grant funding. Its slate roof is supported by gigantic wooden beams, bent into a curve like an A-frame.

Both this room and an adjoining classroom; originally stable stalls, are used to host schoolchildren. As a HLS farm, Helen and David receive funding to support up to 25 school visits a year. Trips usually consist of a guided walk, picnic lunch and afternoon activities such as grinding wheat and an introduction to the farm’s small flock of sheep.

Helen says: “It’s about educating children about where their food comes from so they don’t think it comes from supermarkets. Teachers are expecting a bit of a handful from certain children but they’re in a different environment here and we tend to find that they’re really interested. It’s a bit scary but very rewarding.”

The couple are also keen to widen people’s understanding of ‘environmental farming’. Their hedges are cut one year in three so berries and flowers can flourish as food sources for wildlife and grass verges are left long as a refuge for insects, mice and voles.

In addition to planting new woodland, these conservation measures have created a natural environment just a short car journey from town and it is one in which the family revel.

“We’re farmers first but it makes the farming more interesting. When I’m driving up and down in the combine there’s more to look at,” says David.

There’s little better than sitting beneath a tree by a stream on a summer’s day with a book for company and a chorus of birds singing away, he says.

As for the future, the couple aim to more pro- actively manage their woodland so that they can harvest enough wood to feed a biomass boiler and heat the farmhouse.