Working with nature improves Lakeland farm’s profits

Switching from a high-input farming system to one based on minimal inputs and working with nature has improved profitability on a Cumbrian farm.

First-time farmers Richard and Alison Maxwell, of Howside, Ennerdale, have balanced off-farm employment with running a sheep and beef farm.

Since taking on a National Trust tenancy in 1998 (see “Farming timeline”), Richard, who retired from 32 years in the fire service this year, and Alison, a vet at West Lakeland Vets, Egremont, have saved £100 a cow on their total variable costs (see “Profit performance at Howside”).

See also: Why rest and recovery are essential for pasture after grazing

Turning point

Richard achieved the ambition of a lifetime in 2007 and 2008, winning first prize at the autumn suckled calf sale at Mitchells Auction Company, Cockermouth.

However, while very proud, he had an epiphany when the year-end accounts showed a loss: “Show success was not translating financially,” he says.

Worse still was the fact that he was not spending enough time with his daughter Rebecca and son William, alongside being a firefighter 35 hours a week.

Back then, selling 50 suckled calves turned over £40,000, but 20t of cake and 40t of fertiliser cost £18,000.

“That was before contractor costs for hay and two silage cuts and spreading 60,000 gallons of slurry,” explains Richard.

This was despite Howside having cubicle sheds and a slurry lagoon, which helped limit straw use to 15t a year for calving and lambing.

Richard Maxwell © MAG/Michael Priestley

Transitioning

To cut costs, the Maxwells stopped buying fertiliser, saving £10,000/year (the equivalent of 12.5 calves worth £800 each).

Richard sold 12 cows and subsequently needed two fewer heifers as replacements.  

A £30,000 organic conversion payment helped fund a grassland drill to stitch in clovers.

Soil sampling revealed low pH levels of 4.8-5.4 across the entire farm, which they corrected with calcium lime to help clover establishment.

In the 16 years since, there has been only a slight fall in some fields, from pH 6 to pH 5.9, with no further liming.

“This shows how soil biology and soil health can self-regulate if given a chance,” explains Richard.

With 30 breeding Galloway cows up the valley and 30 continentals at home, the Maxwells compared systems and tracked improving profitability through Newcastle University and the Farm Business Survey.

Richard says: “A continental cow ate 10 bales of silage a year, compared with a Galloway having four. At £30 a bale, that’s a £180 saving.”

By 2017, the continental cows had been dispersed.

© MAG/Michael Priestley

New system

Howside is now used as a grass-finishing unit for the cattle and wintering ground for ewes, which must all be removed in October to rest the hill in winter.

All lambing and calving there takes place outdoors.

Heifers spend their first two winters at Howside (they calve at three years of age due to the low-quality grazing on the hill), being housed for just four months.

They head to the hill in May with their first calf at foot, where they spend the rest of their lives until being culled.

The Maxwells use their pick-up and 12-foot trailer to transport calves and heifers and up to 60 sheep at a time down the three-mile track between Howside and the pens at the head of Ennerdale Water.

Diversified income

Grass-finished beef and lamb summered on Pillar and surrounding fells have proven a hit with locals.

Last year, eight steers and 20 lambs were butchered by Denneys, Kendal – all sold through word of mouth.

Surplus steers are sold at Cockermouth store cattle sales. Pure surplus Galloway heifers are sold at the Galloway Society sale at Carlisle.

Since buying a Whitebred Shorthorn bull, Blue Grey heifers have been sold at Lockerbie’s Newcastleton sale.

About 80 draft ewes are either sold in the autumn or with lambs at foot in the spring after being tupped by a Texel.

Future

New projects include using virtual fencing collars to graze the 600ha (1,483-acre) hill area in the Wild Ennerdale partnership to manage more exposed, rougher areas.

The 31 Nofence collars cost £250 apiece, plus a £5/month subscription. A Farming in Protected Landscapes grant supplied 80% funding. 

Richard explains: “We are learning about soil health through practical experience, research and attending a local farming event called Carbon Calling, as well as being part of Pasture for Life’s Pasture and Profit in Protected Landscapes project.

“We have learnt to graze larger mobs of livestock on smaller pieces of ground. Rest and recovery are what recharges the soil.”