Hidden away in Kent is a typical Wealden farm. And it boasts a history that goes all the way back to the 13th century.
Warren farm is home to the Saxonhurd herd of pedigree Sussex cattle.
They graze on eighty acres of organically certified pasture, surrounded by twenty acres of woodland.
The farmers
Simon and Nicky are second generation farmers who’ve tended this farm for twenty five years.
Every day on the farm is different. What Simon and Nicky do each day depends entirely on what’s going on with the weather.
And it’s that connection to nature that gets them out of bed in the morning.
After all those years they’ve created their own – award winning – herd of cattle. It started with just eight cows and slowly built up to sixty.
Sussex cattle were chosen as they’re a slow growing native breed that work well with regenerative farming. Even if they are a bit stubborn.
Unlike most farmers, the whole herd – except for the bull – continues to be born and raised on the farm.
It’s all about low-stress farming
Stress isn’t healthy for cattle.
It’s bad for their immune system – and it’s not just the cattle that suffer. All animals suffer from stress, humans included.
So on Warren farm Simon and Nicky try as hard as they can not to put any of their herd under stress. It’s simple... if you reduce the stress you get far fewer health problems.
And as an added bonus this also includes the pasture. Because animals that graze on organic/regenerative pasture have even stronger immune systems, which keeps them even more healthy.
The motto is “Don’t be greedy”
Simon and Nicky focus on quality not quantity.
To do that they keep stock levels down and don’t stress the soil – or the cattle. So, if the farm can happily support sixty cattle, then that’s as high as it goes.
That’s because regenerative farming is the opposite to industrial farming – where the motto is “spend more to produce more”.
Simon and Nicky do it differently. They spend less to produce less. And it’s what makes the farm work.
Because what the farm produces – by way of grass, hay and silage – is all fed to the cattle. And the only food that’s “bought-in” is organically certified salt licks made from salt and minerals.
It may sound old fashioned, but that way the farm is entirely sustainable – within its own footprint.
The transition to regenerative/organic
These days organic and regenerative mean much the same thing.
Before Nicky and Simon took over the farm it had been artificially fertilised for many years. When they switched to organic the grass didn’t grow quite as much as before. But slowly, over five years everything stabilised. The older, more deep rooted grasses came back – and so did the clover.
And if you stop using chemicals on the land you attract bees and insects. But it doesn’t stop there, anti-biotic free dung heaps also act as a magnet for beetles, that, in turn attract bats and birds.
Further enhancing biodiversity.
It’s called Artisan farming. And what it produces is Artisan beef.