Arable Farming

Environmental Management

We aim to manage our land ethically and have been accepted into Natural England’s Entry Level Stewardship scheme. This is a voluntary, non-competitive scheme to encourage farmers to deliver simple yet effective environmental management such as hedgerow management.

Crops

Our cropping plan varies each year because growing the same crop repeatedly in the same place eventually depletes the soil of various nutrients. A crop that leaches the soil of one kind of nutrient is followed during the next growing season by a dissimilar crop that returns that nutrient to the soil or draws a different ratio of nutrients. By using crop rotation we can keep the fields under continuous production, without the need to let them lie fallow and reducing the need for artificial fertilisers. We often grow the following crops on Brook and Burnt Farm:

• Wheat
  Wheat grain is a staple food used to make flour for many foods such as bread and pasta and also can be used to make biofuel. Wheat can also be used as a forage crop for livestock and its straw can be used as a construction material for roofing thatch.
• Beans
  The bean crop is classified into two main groups; winter and spring. Most of the bean crop grown in the UK is for animal feed.
• Linseed
  This can be easily recognised by its lilac coloured flower (although it can also have a white flower). Linseed oil is obtained by cold pressing the dried ripe seeds of the plant. Linseed oil is used on its own or blended with other oils, resins and solvents as an impregnator and varnish in wood finishing, as a pigment binder in oil paints, as a plasticizer and hardener in putty and in the manufacture of linoleum.
• Oilseed rape
  This can be easily recognised by its bright yellow flower and is grown for the production of animal feed, vegetable oil for human consumption, and biodiesel.
• Barley
  This is a cereal grain and has many uses. It serves as animal feed, as a base malt for beer and certain distilled beverages, and as a component of various health foods. 
• Peas
  The biggest market for combine peas overall is for animal feed where they are useful because of their GM free status and favourable protein content. Peas provide a good alternative to imported protein crops like soya bean and are used in pet food as well as in commercial animal feeds.
• Grass
  This is grown as part of our environmental management scheme and can also be used to graze animals on and to make silage and hay, which is used as animal feed in the winter months.

If you would like more information please do not hesitate to contact us.