56 PIPER HOLE FARM AUG / SEP 2022 • farmers-mart . co . uk
International Award for goat farm in Ravenstonedale
Chris Berry talks goats , soil health and sheep with Frank Hunter of Piper Hole Farm
FARMING at over 1000ft is always challenging and it is set to be even more so with the end of the basic farm payment scheme and new environmental stewardship payments that are proving of little consequence and ‘ unfit for purpose ’ for many .
Up in the hills at Piper Hole Farm in Ravenstonedale a farming family ’ s mix of goats , sheep and sales of their produce direct to the consumer appears to be reaping benefits . Awards might not equate to money , but a Bronze Award at the International Cheese Awards for Piper Hole Goat Farm Cheese last autumn was recognition that their produce is on the right lines .
Frank Hunter of Piper Hole says that the farm cannot simply rely on goats producing meat , milk and cheese for their income , but he is also aware that it is goats that are responsible for a sizeable chunk of it .
“ They are definitely our main sector now . We have around 250-head at any one time with 130 breeding goats , and the rest being what we rear for meat . We have Saanen and British Alpine breeds .
“ We have found a niche sector for them because of their health benefits in both
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01768 889084 | info @ colindawsonltd . com colindawsonltd . com their meat and their dairy produce . UK cuisine is no longer just bacon & eggs and roast beef . There are so many world cuisines and goat ’ s meat is one of the healthiest meats around . We now sell direct from the farm to restaurants , cafes and the public .
“ At Orton and Brough farmers markets we sell out of our goat meat time after time and we ’ ve even had a few hits on telly on This Farming Life and Pennines , Backbone of Britain on More4 where TV chefs have extolled the virtues of our goat meat , milk and cheese .
“ We sell our milk to cheesemakers Legram Organic Dairy at Chipping near Preston and in return we get back our own branded cheese to sell at the farmers markets alongside our goat meat .
“ Cheese & milk has now become the backbone of what we do and helped both our business and those we were selling to through Covid . We were finalists in the North West Business Awards 2022 because of how we had supported lactose intolerant people with goat ’ s milk continuously throughout the pandemic .
Frank has always been conscious of farming the right way , looking after the land and the soil . He says the goats are natural stewardship animals .
“ They are browsers not grazers and that makes them good land managers as what they eat are the rushes and thistles . It gives them another worth to our farming operation because as much as they are useful animals for meat and dairy products they are also very useful as tools for the environmental issues .
“ What we have also found is that if they are bred to the farm they are used to the poor weather conditions we experience up here , but if we were to buy a milking goat from a big milking herd it would generally not work as well up here because it would not be used to our kind of inclemency and we couldn ’ t feed it the way intensive dairy farms would .