Funding for farmland wildlife a thread🧵

On Monday @LizzieHarrop went to Downing Street to speak at the Mobilising Nature Finance event and raised concerns about how this funding model is developing and the potential negative impacts for wildlife and family farms ⬇️ With BPS going, farmers have been encouraged to look at more env. ways of farming, and the growth and interest in regenerative agriculture has increased significantly. It seems there has never been a better time to reverse the decline in farm wildlife through effective policy ⬇️

"There is no such thing as a hardy animal" a thread 🧵
"There are only animals that "Fit" their environment" - Quote from @AllanRSavory

So when we look at the fertility of an animal or rather a herd, we must look at it as part of its "whole" - within its environment. ⬇️ As a professional ecologist myself it was so refreshing to see this approach to ag. If you haven't read his chapter on community dynamics in "Holistic Management" then you really should. Its an important piece of writing and is really the basis for this whole regen movement ⬇️

🧵FERTILITY! - A 🧵on why we breed for it above all other traits - what it actually is and where the industry has gone wrong in the past. As a starter for 10 -

Do you know why one animal grows more than another and if you select for that growth - what you are selecting for? ⬇️ I remember when this was pointed out to me, that I felt a bit thick not knowing why my cattle grew.
The answer is hormones! So when we are selecting for growth we are selecting for a dominance of growth hormones over the reproductive hormones, something we should be careful of..

SHEEP.. I’d petitioned for sheep since day one, always got told not on your nelly, they were taken with foot and mouth and Roy and his dad realised how much grass they ate when they weren’t here. ANYHOW a friend dropped these off on the doorstep one day in 2017 This lady is Sietta … she was 51 and it looked like SI, she was the girl so we added an Etta on it SI-ETTA 😂 we still have her she’s a cantankerous old bat but I love her and she has a pass for life (the only one) aside from her Roy decided to give in and in 2020 we got sheep

So I moved to Cumbria 14 years ago now, was thrown in at the deep end of extreme hobby farming, the kind where it should be a full time job but there is a family business to care for, Roy & his dad calved 30 limmy x cows and 0 sheep the petition started on day one of me arriving In 2015 our house flooded very sad get tiny violins out, and we (the royal we) managed to buy a farm next to some already existing land in a village nearby. In may 2016 we moved in. I worked the daily jobs on the farm until 2019 when the family business closed

Sound bath under way to round off the week here.

Thank you for all the comments, questions and messages over the week. We've covered a little bit of a lot of different things.

It's worth noting, that alongside all this, our arable operation continues as it always has done. Through testing and now slowly refining our broad range of new ventures we hope to make sure the farm is a viable business for the future as well as now.

Food production will always be at the core of what we do, but it's good fun and worthwhile spending time on new things too.

One of the many perks of the cafe, is having a place to meet and chat to locals.

Clarkson's Farm made a big difference last year in how engaged the public were with the farm work.

One of these chats last summer was with a neighbour who had launched a green hydrogen business. He was after a building they could use as a prototype for their new technology, and as luck would have it, we were on the hunt for the best way to install heating in the gym (150 year old building with 5m high roof and zero insulation).

GRASSLANDS! They are so important for our ecology/wildlife. With some good hedges/scrub around them/in them they create an amazing habitat. They are part of the EDGE. The edge habitat where 90% of our terrestrial species reside. You read that right - 90% We are very lucky to graze and manage some VERY diverse pastures. They are magical. The combination of so many species of plant and insects/animals interacting creates incredible energy. You can feel it. We call this community dynamics. It feels so different to a monoculture!

So I joined the farming partnership in 2003 and we mainly grazed nature reserves as well as at home. We got paid to graze but the cattle themselves were not making money. We were running shedding sheep at home too. I would rent land and lose it, then get some more. Similar pattern. But the livestock themselves were not making money. It didn't really feel like we were making progress.

A bit of a thread about how we came to farm here. This is my Great Grandad winning a ploughing match in Crickhowell. He came to Phepson in 1919 - you can hear all about it on this ⬇️ podcast with @YPClayConry workingcows.net/ep-225-bob-hav… Great Grandad "forgot" to pay the tax man so had to sell 80 acres. Then during the depression he couldn't get a bid on his lambs so he butchered them and sent his 3 daughters to the local town door to door. The start of direct selling...

I'm beginning tweeting at the #wintersolstice

As I just explained, we just finished building a new monument, #soultonlongbarrow, which revives a prehistoric practice of building long barrows, not seen for 5,500 years

These are the first images of the new chamber ever shared Im going 2 explain more about what this is, and how it has been an important resource for our community in surprising ways in this challenging covid year, but for now, I just wanted to share a picture of the monument working with the #wintersolstice #sunset for the 1st time today

1 Now this is not a woe is me thread but as I have been given a platform I might as well get on my soap box! I would like to chat about the thorny issue of succession. It is just 6 years since Mum died with Dad dying just 9 months later. There was no real succession plan in place 2 Whilst an old and vague will was in place, there was no business succession plan. When Dad died he was essentially a sole trader. Nearly on day 1 all personal and business bank accounts were frozen and all capital rendered inaccessible. The unpaid bills however were very real