Seasonal labour needed as young farmer’s business grows

Matthew Nichols’ business continues to expand, with more contract spraying and liquid fertiliser work as well as a sizeable contract farming agreement on the horizon.

His move to a regenerative system is bringing more livestock onto the farm, something which he had in his sights at the judging visit last year.

See also: Farmers Weekly Awards: 2022 Young Farmer of the Year

His part-time employee, Mark Burrell, has taken on a nearby farm tenancy and is grazing sheep on Mr Nichols’ cover crops.

This provides both valuable fodder for Mr Burrell’s stock and earns Mr Nichols some cash in addition to the agronomic benefits of the cover crops.

“This is working well,” he says. “Especially as Mark also has grazing on a neighbouring farm, making stock movement and management easier.”

The growing spray workload had been posing a labour problem, with Mr Burrell busy lambing for part of the spray season and the very seasonal need for help because of the large volume of contracting work.

However, this is now resolved, with a self-employed sprayer operator joining the team this week.

Last year saw Mr Burrell doing most of the spraying and Mr Nichols doing the drilling.

Since then, the agronomy area has grown, with Mr Nichols walking another 400ha, bringing the agronomy service total to 2,200ha.

The business does the spraying on about 30% of that area, while about 350ha was contract-drilled this time.

All fertiliser applications are liquid, with an expansion here too this year as a large spraying customer is also moving to liquid fertiliser.

The farm runs two lots of B&B pigs in batches of 800 and 600 head, and Mr Nichols is currently going through a costly planning process to convert a grain store to pig housing for the 600 batch.

He continues to modernise other buildings gradually and is improving the yard with a Countryside Stewardship (CS) capital grant.

A new sprayer wash area and biobed are also under construction, which will incorporate a new spray store and washroom for staff. 

However there was no grant aid for this.

The contract farming agreement is on heavier soils and will also be moving to a more regenerative system, using a broader range of crops and Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) rotational options.

The plan is to gradually move to a more even balance between spring- and winter-sown crops, for both workload and soil health reasons.

More information needed on SFI

Mr Nichols’ home farm is in a Mid-Tier CS agreement, with two years to run, by which time he will be clear about what the SFI offers.

He is waiting to hear more about the standards before he can judge their appeal, particularly on nutrient management and integrated pest management.

Mr Nichols’ profile as a 2022 Farmers Weekly Awards winner has seen him approached to speak at several events, something he says takes him out of his comfort zone but was also one of his ambitions at the judging last year.

He is part of a benchmarking group of seven or eight farmers that meets a few times a year. “It’s a good thing to do,” he says.

“It injects some discipline on costs and helps you get a better handle on them. It also makes you become more organised because you have to prepare for the meetings.”

This is all the more helpful in a market that saw him sell wheat at £330/t and £180/t last year, averaging more than £250/t.

His wider industry involvement has also grown since last year. He is now chairman of his local NFU branch and is on the local NFU crops board and the steering group for the AHDB’s Ripon Monitor Farm.

Last year also saw Mr Nichols and his wife, Kate, get married and, as he puts it, they farmed their way around New Zealand on honeymoon, visiting contracting businesses as well as family farms.