Trevor run two farms, there is the home farm, 140-acres, which is cattle and sheep both organic and biodynamic certified. He grazes the two together, selling his beef directly and the lamb is through ICM. It also has 12 acres in forestry and 40 acres in cereal – he sells his oats to Flavahans and his barley to make a biodynamic whiskey. The second farm is horticultural land, 14 acres outdoors and 1500sqm indoors, where he is growing vegetables for restaurants, a box scheme and retail. On both farms, Trevor is passionate about soil health which is to the fore in his approach to management of his enterprise, the focus is to build resilience in the soil through diversity. “I feel it is so important to build the fertility in the soil as where there is a good biome, the produce will taste better.” This involves getting the right mineral balance and physical soil structure to encourage soil biology to flourish. Diversity of plants also encourages diversity in the insect and bird communities which helps keep everything in balance so that no one species will dominate and cause problems for the farm crops. Sunflowers, trefoils, alliums are planted along with the cereals to bring balance. A mixed species crop of barley, oats, peas, linseed, sunflowers is grown as a fertility builder, to provide a mixed animal ration and to encourage diversity in the wildlife. Cattle and sheep are fed on a multi species sward which contains Fescue's, Timothy, Ryegrass's, Cocksfoot, Clover, Chicory, Burnet, Agri Tonic, Meadowgrass, Sheep's Parsley, and Yarrow. This leads to healthier animals and healthier humans that eat those animals. It also creates a great environment for diversity in wildlife. When Trevor took over the farm, he inherited a 100-acre field – he has replanted hedges to divide up this field and they look fantastic. They contain many species including hawthorn, cherry, spindle, hazel, oak etc. He has planted trees and hedges on the long approach to the house and yard. He has planted an oak woodland (3 acres). He has established a small orchard with a native meadow underneath. He believes “one thing we can all do is just leave our hedgerows grow and flourish”. Trevor produces good yields without any chemical inputs.

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