WINTER wheat grown for seed and going into Frontier at Cranswick , vining peas grown for Bird ’ s Eye and ryegrass grown for what John Fenton calls ‘ bunny much ’ were the three main crops grown in 2020-21 at Elmswell that John terms an extraordinary farm with every field south facing .

While Elmswell runs to 1400 acres of which 1000 is arable it is conservation that has become his passion . The farm went into Countryside Stewardship twenty years ago and has been the HLS scheme for the past ten years .

John ’ s work in taking poplar out of the river system from Elmswell Beck that connects the River Hull , including putting in silt traps to stop silt getting in the river , has had a huge impact on improving water quality . He has also planted miles of hedgerows and is working tirelessly to improve soil and wildlife all around the farm .

John was the East Riding recipient of the Tye Trophy for his work on conservation a decade ago and went on to achieve recognition in the Silver Lapwing national award . He subsequently joined the Tye Trophy judging team and has been head judge the past five years .

‘ I love my conservation and I find it a particular privilege to go on to others ’ farms in my position as head judge and see the fantastic story that is to be told ,’ says John . ‘ There is a phenomenal amount of unsung work that is being undertaken on farms all around the north of England , including a great degree of regenerative work .’

‘ There is also a much bigger story to be told about farmers joining together to collaborate on conservation where their land adjoins .’

‘ We have planted 15 miles of hedgerows over the past twenty years and have 28 miles of hedgerows on the farm , some of which date back as far as the 1700s .’

‘ One of the benefits of last year ’ s wet weather was that we couldn ’ t cut any hedges because it was tricky to travel on the margins where would do it , and now they are just brimming with fruit and are an absolute delight to see .’

‘ The hedgerows are home to a great deal of wildlife and we also have 48 miles of field margins that help protect the hedgerows , bringing about copious amounts of butterflies , insects and bees . We also now have 40 beehives . Pollinators are very important to us .

John ’ s commercial crop of 633 acres of winter wheat variety Extase yielded between 4 to 4.5 tonnes per acre this year . His 185 acres of vining peas achieved a record tonnage and his ryegrass performed well . It is a healthy picture on what is now a seven-year rotation that is made up of vining peas , two wheats , grass for two years and then wheat for two years again .

John no longer grows oilseed rape . He also talks of not being free of blackgrass .

‘ It ’ s just a waste of money putting oilseed rape in the ground . Since the neonicotinoids ban there is nothing that we can use that can control flea beetle . Two years ago we lost 90 per cent of our oilseed rape crop to lea beetle , the second time we had been hammered .’

‘ We rogue out the blackgrass . It is manageable and we are in like hawks trying to eradicate it , but life is certainly more challenging in trying to deal with problems when bans are put in place .’

‘ The pea crop has always proven to be a nitrogen fixer as well as a profitable and consistent crop . We also put in cover crops of phacelia and winter oats to help with the soil .’

In addition to rotational cropping Elmswell also has 100 acres of commercial woodland .

‘ We ’ ve been busy this autumn taking out a lot of poplar right at the top end of the springs where we have the most northerly chalk stream in England and one of only 210 in the world . We ’ ve taken out in total over a period 5000 tonnes of poplar which has had a dramatic effect in creating a more spongy area by the side of the stream .’

‘ That ’ s the result we wanted and it has been a really good year for the flow of the river because previously the poplars were hindering it . Poplars are the worst trees for translocation of water and were originally planted if you wanted to dry somewhere out , which is why previously they were always planted in wetland areas .’

John has also taken out ash which has gone for logs to go into the log burners market .

‘ I know everybody says log burners are not good for the environment , but they are very good for woodland because suddenly they have given us a market for the timber . Previously people weren ’ t thinning out woods because it cost them more to do so than the market value .’

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