Yeo Valley Natural helped carry natural meals to the plenty. Now it’s trying to shift the established order by way of regenerative agriculture. Farmer Tim Mead on mob grazing, companion planting and restoring nature one dock beetle at a time
“It’s like rising muesli for cows,” says Yeo Valley Natural farmer Tim Mead, as he describes the smorgasbord of barley, peas and oats that feed the British meals model’s dairy herd – cereals and pulses thriving side-by-side.
“By rising them collectively as a substitute of in separate fields [a tactic known as companion planting], you get crop resilience, you get the peas fixing nitrogen within the floor for different crops, you get higher soil well being,” he says.
Yeo Valley Natural led the best way in bringing natural meals to the plenty – the model obtained off the bottom within the mid-90s however its roots return to 1961 when Mead’s dad and mom bought Holt Farm in Blagdon, Somerset. They have been humble beginnings – some cows, sheep and some arable crops, however they quickly realised they might do greater than dairy farming. In 1972, the couple opened a tearoom and a ‘pick-your-own’ fruit farm. Then got here yogurt manufacturing and the launch of the Yeo Valley Natural model in 1994.
Wholesome land is extra productive and may carry extra animals, say proponents of regenerative agriculture. Picture: Yeo Valley Natural
Now, the agency helps sow the seeds of a second revolution, which builds on its successes with natural cultivation: regenerative agriculture. Companion planting is only one method that Mead and a rising tribe of like-minded farmers are banking on to rebalance agriculture’s relationship with nature, restore its battered picture, and possibly even assist save the planet.
“You might argue that each farmer who’s degrading their soil is on a runway,” Mead says. “And in some unspecified time in the future that runway runs out. It’s not a query of if they’ve to begin regenerating it, it’s when.”
On the coronary heart of regenerative farming are a couple of core ideas: preserve soil undisturbed, lined in vegetation, wealthy in residing roots and filled with various crops. These easy shifts lock up carbon whereas restoring soil’s delicate ecosystem of bugs, fungi and microbes. These in flip preserve crops fed and watered, with out artificial fertilisers.
On the coronary heart of regenerative farming are a couple of core ideas: preserve soil undisturbed, lined in vegetation, wealthy in residing roots and filled with various crops. Picture: Thiago Patriota
Introducing livestock onto blended pastures of herbs, grasses and legumes brings different co-benefits: the basis construction of the various crops breaks up compacted floor, bettering water retention, and the cows fertilise it by trampling in plant matter.
Whereas these measures would possibly sound like a throwback, unbiased regenerative farming advisor Niels Corfield stresses this isn’t misty-eyed nostalgia, it’s the longer term. One the place revenue comes not on the expense of nature, however in concord with it.
“It’s necessary to not fall into this lure of feeling that regenerative needs to be previous world and low-yielding,” says Corfield. “We’re seeing that as you enhance the well being of the land…it turns into extra productive, it carries extra animals.
Each tree is a scratching put up, the cattle have shelter and variety of food regimen. I feel they’re extra content material
“Surpluses simply seem,” Corfield continues. “There’s a big discount in the price of manufacturing throughout the board. It’s like someone put a greenhouse over your land and shoved it two levels south whereas irrigating it on the similar time. It’s a win-win.”
For Mead, Yeo Valley Natural’s personal regenerative journey is a pure development of three a long time of natural farming. Apart from companion planting, the farm practices mob grazing: conserving livestock in a dense herd and transferring it on to pastures new 4 occasions a day, to imitate the behaviour of untamed herbivores similar to bison. It means more healthy, extra considerable grass, which in flip nourishes soil microbes.
An ongoing undertaking is monitoring soil carbon shares with the objective, over time, of bettering carbon sequestration by 25% on Yeo Valley Natural’s farmland, and making the enterprise carbon impartial. Within the meantime, Mead says, they’ve ditched the widespread observe of topping grassland to regulate docks, a perennial weed that may hurt the dietary worth of pasture.
Introducing livestock onto blended pastures of herbs, grasses and legumes brings co-benefits: the basis construction of the various crops break up compacted floor, bettering water retention, and the cows fertilise it by trampling in plant matter. Picture: Yeo Valley Natural
“If you happen to reduce them, you’re taking meals away from the dock beetles, you’re stopping pure biology from being the answer,” he explains. “Go away them in and the beetles return. Final 12 months they completely shredded our docks. I feel I’m a reasonably logical particular person, however for 25 years we wasted time and vitality doing what we thought was proper. In actual fact it was improper.”
The drive for variety has fed into Yeo Valley Natural’s product vary, too. Though dairy stays the model’s mainstay, natural beef burgers joined the line-up earlier this 12 months – a transfer met in some quarters with raised eyebrows.
“I noticed many column inches discussing why Yeo Valley Natural has gone into burgers, however only a few stated it’s as a result of we’ve obtained beef cows on the farm!” Mead counters. “We’ve obtained variety in our cattle breeding, within the fields and in our crops – why ought to we simply be a dairy model? It’s a pure extension to showcase merchandise from a farming system that we imagine in.”
We’re seeing that as you enhance the well being of the land…it turns into extra productive, it carries extra animals
Yeo Valley’s free-roaming, grass-fed beef is a part of an experiment in agroforestry – the place agriculture is mixed with tree cultivation – on an virtually unprecedented scale. A patch of woodland blighted by ash dieback has been become silvopasture, the place beef cattle graze under the cover. The objective is to maximise carbon drawdown, carry biodiversity and provide livestock some respite from excessive climate. Yeo Valley Natural has set a goal of 1,000 acres (405 hectares), which in the future will make its silvopasture one of many largest in Britain.
“It’s the greenest place on our farm,” says Mead. “Each tree is a scratching put up, the cattle have shelter and variety of food regimen. I feel they’re extra content material.”
Work by the conservation charity World Extensive Fund for Nature (WWF) means that, by 2030, regenerative farming strategies might slash the UK’s greenhouse gasoline emissions equal to taking virtually 1,000,000 vehicles off the street.
“[Regenerative methods] have large co-benefits for nature, water, air and other people, and scaling up these actions needs to be seen as ‘easy-wins’,” the charity says in its Land of A lot report.
In Mead’s view, the primary barrier to extra widespread adoption is mindset. “You’ve obtained to provide it time,” he says. “If you happen to imagine within the system, it should come proper.”
To deal with that hurdle, he’s partaking Yeo Valley Natural’s 150 dairy suppliers – encouraging the farmers to hold out their very own soil assessments, and sharing insights on natural leys, composting and superior grazing methods.
It’s an extended sport, he admits. “It’s taken 150 years to mess issues up. Actually, it’s not going to take 5 years or 10 years to place all of it again – it’s going to take for much longer.”
Within the meantime, there’s a extra quick prize up for grabs. Regenerative farming gives some widespread floor within the typically polarised debate between conservation and agriculture. For farmers it’s additionally a golden alternative to regain public belief.
“Farmers are on the lookout for one thing that individuals might be optimistic about,” Mead says. “And the reply is regenerative agriculture. I feel our relationship with customers might be rebuilt rapidly and made actually robust, as a result of this time farmers are a part of the answer.”
