August at The Rhynd

Sep 10

4 min read

KEEPING FARMING SUSTAINABLE

I recently got asked to attend a Scottish Government Agricultural Reform Workshop. I doubt this was for any other reason that they asked every farmer in Scotland, but I was keen to attend as the future of farming in this country is intrinsically linked with my family’s future, as well as the 35 or so people that work here.

It was an interesting few hours discussing the future of support and how the government can make sure this assistance goes to active farmers. Historically, farms have received a payment based on the size of farm and type of land they have. This was handled by the EU, but was then passed to local governments after Brexit. The Scottish Government has been much more supportive than its counterpart in England where, instead of paying farmers simply for owning land, the government pays them to implement environmental and sustainable practices. This sounds like a great idea in theory, especially with the push to farm in a more sustainable way. However, in practice, it hasn’t been an easy shift, and some farms have simply signed up to the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) and stopped producing food.

What’s more, 6365 agriculture, forestry, and fishing businesses have closed over the past year in England – it is the fastest pace of farm liquidations on record, even with 3190 new businesses being established in the sector over the same period. The worst affected have been arable, pig, dairy and poultry farms – not really a surprise when average net arable farm incomes dropped by nearly 75 per cent in a single financial year. It is genuinely very bad news.

Scotland, meanwhile, is keen to keep 70 per cent of its original direct payments, and then dedicate the other 30 per cent to environmental and sustainable schemes. Which is good news, as long as the environmental schemes make sense, aren’t impossible to apply for and offer genuine benefit for everyone. We enquired about a grant to plant hedgerows a couple of years ago as we were keen to improve the field margins. In the small print, though, it said that the hedgerow needed to be weeded on a yearly basis. To what standard? And would that mean I needed to weed a kilometre of hedgerow on my hands and knees? It was all a waste of time in the end as we were told that there was never any money in the grant pot. We ended up planting the hedge ourselves without any grant money. You may wonder why we don’t plant more. The main restrictions are cost, ongoing maintenance and loss of acreage as not only is a hedge wider than a fence, but you also must leave a margin either side. When it’s very difficult to make ends meet, losing even small acreages can be very painful.

We do genuinely care for the environment, and that’s why we have planted thousands of trees over the past few years and why we are so keen on local produce. We rear our own pigs, we have our own polytunnel that fuels our chef’s table dinners, specials in the café and our forest feasts. And we also try and make, reuse and mend rather than just buying new stuff. The tables at the stretch tent were made from a poplar, that had to be felled because it was encroaching on electricity wires, and the two grills Jack uses were made from metal off-cuts in the workshop. The wood we burn is from Storm Arwen, and even the tabletops at the wine safari stops are from the aforementioned poplar.

The Old Dairy at the event space follows a similar pattern – the old roof has been used on the walls and old milk containers from the 1960s dairy have been used as lights.

New for this year is our ‘plates plant pines’ initiative (I curse the day I came up with the name as I can’t say it). For every plate of food we serve at this year’s forest feasts we will plant another pine tree this winter. At last count, we’re at 1800 trees.

There tends to be two schools of thought on farming and the environment. One is that we need food security, and the other is that we should rewild the country. We believe the solution lies somewhere in the middle. Are we doing enough on the estate? Some will always say no, but we’re improving it every day.

Read more about our ongoing sustainability efforts at The Rhynd here.

CAFÉ SPECIALS FOR SEPTEMBER

Smoked cherry tomato and buratta salad with a harissa dressing

(13.50)

Bouillabaisse fish soup with Eden Valley prawns, sea bream, Shetland mussels and crayfish in a rich tomato bisque served with toasted sourdough

(24.95)

UPCOMING CALENDAR

Café

Open as usual Friday to Sunday

Please book a table

Scottish Clay Shooting Centre

Open as usual Fridays and Saturdays, and by appointment during the week