50 MOLESCROFT FARM OCT / NOV 2020 • farmers-mart . co . uk
‘ We are direct drilling and cultivating with crosscut discs without affecting the soil biology . We are doing all we can to get rid of blackgrass and are working substantially with cover crops . We are working on cover crop trials with Frontier where every year the same field will have the same manure or compost residue and over the years we will test the soil biology , bacteria and fungi . We are hoping to show how close we can get it back to being a natural soil . That way we will see what each cover crop brings . Currently we are using a mix of rye and phacelia or black oats and phacelia .’
‘ We also combine and handle some of the cultivation work on a neighbouring farm in Walkington . I have an amazing farm manager , James Brown , who was farm manager at the much larger Hall Farm in Routh . The two other members of the team are Andy Sparkes who looks after all the combining , we run a New Holland 8080 and Fred Holland who runs the grain dryer .’
There are now nine individual companies , including everything from accountants to media and potato harvesting machinery businesses , based on what is Molescroft Farm Estate . They are housed in converted , previously redundant farm buildings on the site around the farmhouse and estate office .
‘ They provide a good rural location with no parking issues . It has made this a really vibrant , happy community . I like having people here . When I first came all we were working out of was a leaky Portakabin . Talking with others helps because you stop worrying so much about your own and realise everyone has their troubles . But then you can celebrate with each other when things go right too .’
‘ We also have a 20-acre woodland that is open to the public . It was planted in 2000 , before I came back , after a pea viner had got stuck and a crane was needed to get it out of the wet field . It ’ s now another nice part of the farm .’
‘ We started some allotments in 2007 . I ’ d been meaning to give over some land for allotments for a while and thought if it didn ’ t work we would just take it back , but it has been fantastically successful and we now have a waiting list . There are 70 allotments over a 5-acre field .’
There are now also two dog walking fields – one is 6 acres , the other 1.5 acres .
‘ I didn ’ t realise dog walking fields were so important to people . Someone came to see me who had some rescue huskies . I started looking at what unproductive land we had that could be used and found some underused grass fields
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