Farmers Weekly Awards 2022: Young Farmer of the Year

Matthew Nichols of Manor Farm, North Yorkshire is Farmer’s Weekly’s Young Farmer of the Year.

Matthew Nichols, 29, is a fifth-generation farmer balancing managing an arable and B&B pig unit with offering independent agronomy and contracting services.

He runs the farm in partnership with his grandmother after his parents and grandfather passed away.

Having taken the plunge and converted the holding to a regenerative, zero-till system, he plans to add more livestock to the business in the near future.

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

Getting started

Matthew’s farming interest began as a child, when he began helping out on the farm and gradually picked up more knowledge and responsibility. 

At 16, he studied agriculture at Askham Bryan College, alongside working for a neighbouring farmer, where his employer encouraged him to market wheat on his behalf, which helped him learn about costings and better understand the market.

After college, Matthew became a trainee agronomist at ProCam, gaining Basis, Facts and Advanced Cereals Basis qualifications.

Deciding the sales and commercial side of the job wasn’t for him, he started an independent agronomy business at age 24, and sourced several customers by offering something different and saving them money, building to cover about 4,000ha in his local area.

Current business

As well as crop walking, he began picking up some arable work and started a partnership with his grandparents at the family farm.

In 2018, his grandfather died and Matthew took a 51% share in the partnership with his grandmother to qualify for the Young Farmer extra BPS payment.

Since then, he has moved the business from rotational cropping of large blocks of wheat, barley and oilseed rape to smaller areas with alternative crops and different break crops, and a zero till method, which suits the land.

He was curious to see if he could make the regenerative farming technique work, and says the financial element was a crucial factor in the decision-making process, especially in terms of having to invest in kit.

He introduced the the B&B pigs – which complement the arable system – in 2020, using the existing on-site buildings and built the rest of the necessary infrastructure himself. The low-risk contract helps with cashflow and the manure can be used on farm.

The weaners come in aged four weeks and leave the farm after nine weeks. ~Depending on their age, they only need checking once or twice a day.

Matthew is also trying to establish a cover crop that provides a financial return as well as grazing.

Future plans

The farm has no boundary fences, so to secure it all would be expensive. However, Matthew has plans to introduce sheep and cattle, and possibly free-range poultry.

He is also the vice-chairman of the local NFU branch and wants to generate more interest in the union and encourage young people to attend the meetings and get involved.

Priorities going forward include adding more B&B pigs, finding a way to justify employing someone full-time instead of just part-time, and looking into entering the Sustainable Farming Incentive.

It is difficult to find more land in the local area due to the amount of competition, but Matthew is considering entering a share-farming agreement with neighbours, where he can share his expertise, knowledge and labour.

The end goal is to farm in his own right only, without contracting or agronomy.

The other finalists were:

• Dan Lethbridge, South Treviddo Farm, Cornwall
• Emily Pearse, Sheppark Farm, Devon