Farm Focus

Discover a new sustainable initiative from Nene Park Trust, monthly ‘Park to Plate’ lamb boxes, containing lamb born and reared on Nene Park land managed in a nature-friendly way.

Park to Plate has grown out of the share farming partnership between Nene Park Trust and first generation farmers, Oundle brothers Craig and Ryan Baxter, following the three key principles of being kind to animals, kind to nature and kind to the environment. Placing the utmost importance on the welfare of animals, the farming system is entirely forage-based, meaning that livestock enjoy grass, herbs and wildflowers throughout their lives, minimising environmental impact and maximising benefits to nature.

Every stage of the farming cycle is managed locally, resulting in a genuinely hyper-local product. With few inputs and the highest animal welfare standards, Park to Plate meat has a significantly lower carbon footprint compared to intensively reared supermarket produce. Park to Plate lamb boxes are available to order from the Nene Park online shop on a monthly basis with collection from the Visitor Centre, Gift & Farm Shop in Ferry Meadows. Customers can choose from three sizes, which contain a variety of cuts of lamb. Visit their website for a list of contents and prices: www.nenepark.org.uk/shop

With all spring sowings completed by the end of March and the first couple of days in April some of which are already emerging and, although the frosts have kept the temperature down at night and early mornings, we have had some lovely warm days which have done both the crops, and ourselves a lot of good – after a very long winter.

Our earlier spring sowings have grown very well so that’s an encouraging start to 2022. All that’s needed now is a watchful eye over them for possible disease, any feed that is

required and of course the right weather through their growing season, which we hope will give us maximum yield, quality and by all world events we shall need as much home grown produce as we can provide, with less food miles which makes sense when we are all being told we need to help the environment deliver a more

sustainable future, our food produced in this country goes through the most stringent test and regulations, growers are now facing horrendous hikes in prices for everything they need to produce this food and it is inevitable this has to be passed on to the consumer, which I know most people understand. In our farm shop, we are

doing our utmost to keep our prices as low as possible. All commodities have been affected, mainly caused by the rise in energy prices, which we

During the second world war farmers were told to cultivate every inch of ground, clear scrub land etc and grow crops on this land so we were more self-sufficient, to a certain extent what’s happening now is history repeating itself, relying on other countries can be in times of conflict or disasters a very risky road to go on.

are all aware of when our bills drop through the door. During the second world war farmers were told to cultivate every inch of ground, clear scrub land etc and grow crops on this land so we were more self-sufficient, to a certain extent what’s happening now is history repeating itself, relying on other countries can be in times of conflict or disasters a very risky road to go on. It’s all been down to the in-balance of trade deals now we have left the EU.

Other countries can use us as a dumping ground or if there is a shortage, we don’t get that commodity, again food produced here creates less food miles, perhaps this is a wake-up call to our government to get a grip on this and give farmers in this country the opportunity to produce goods at a sustainable price, providing good jobs with a fair wage for all.

Other countries can use us as a dumping ground or if there is a shortage, we don’t get that commodity, again food produced here creates less food miles, perhaps this is a wake-up call to our government to get a grip on this and give farmers in this country the opportunity to produce goods at a sustainable price, providing good jobs with a fair wage for all. For those people that are not aware, our industry over recent years has become very high tech and needs employees of a good education who are really interested in this work. It’s not a nine to five job, we have to work with the weather.

As I am writing these notes on Tuesday evening, deadline to reach the editor on Good Friday my vegetable supplier has just texted me to say that the lettuce I ordered were going to cost me £1.80 each, he hadn’t brought them. This is quite typical of how volatile the market is at the present time. Perhaps the supermarkets have brought them all up? – it’s a bit like the fuel pumps at the moment, who knows?

Gone are the days when you could do your costings for the farm annually, in the retail sector allowing for seasonal changes possibly four times a year. Now it is every day – creating extra work. As one large wholesaler said to me this week, customers

have commented their products weren’t priced. His answer “we can’t keep up with price changes, so it’s a pointless exercise” - that’s a very large business. We in our small way do endeavour to keep our prices checked daily and marked up for our customers to see before purchasing. The next two months on the farm are usually spent in between looking at what the growing crops need and getting equipment, grain stores cleaned out and any repairs to them completed well before harvest starting in July. We are now into the second week in April (Easter week), how the countryside is changing! Hedges greening up, trees coming out of their winter dormancy and soon the whole countryside will be awash with colour and alive with nature, and of course with all the wonderful nesting birds as well so why do developers wish to come into our villages and spoil our living and working countryside with proposals for such large developments? Our lovely village of Helpston is faced with such a massive development. Once a brick is laid that area becomes inaccessible for future developments of the school playing field or proper car parking facilities and eventually the school will be doomed. Surely people’s safety, health

and wellbeing is what’s important – no amount of money can buy one’s health as we’ve all seen recently. If this development, as it stands, is allowed - as was put forward this month, there are no facilities in the plan to accommodate a large green area for children at the school or indeed for other members of the community – this is of course a dual use playing field. The landowner, the developers and the planners have it within their power to make this development an asset to the village rather than a loss. If the plan is very slightly re-jigged this would be easily achievable, with very little loss of revenue to the developer. This is a once or never opportunity to give Helpston the infrastructure that it so desperately needs. Let’s hope we, as a community, can help them to understand this and that sense and goodwill prevails for the benefit of future generations. villagetribune 43