Andrew Woof runs a 200-hectare organic farm in Oxfordshire, growing cereals and pulses while grazing Herefords in mobs. He's experimenting with cover crops and silvopasture, and explains how his family's tenancy from Christchurch, Oxford differs from standard Farm Business Tenancies.
Chapters
So welcome to a new episode of Farm Like a Hero folks. I'm Richard Perkins. Today I'm here with a special guest, Andrew Wolf of Weston Farm in Oxfordshire in the UK. The farm's a third generation tenancy managed by the family since 1975. Andrew farms 200 hectares of organic arable land focused on cereals and pulses. And I'm really excited about this conversation. I feel like the grain question is certainly not talked about enough in this space. He's transitioning towards sowing into roller crimp terminated more multi species cover crops and also runs a Hereford suckler cow herd which are mob grazed with plans for future silver pasture plantings. That they will be running and transitioning from more conventional practices, even organic ones, is never free of complexity. So I'm super happy to have Andrew with us to share his insights and experience from the more broad scale perspective. So Andrew, thanks very much for taking the time to join us today. Sure.
Thank you very much indeed for having me.
I wonder if you could tell us a little bit of the backstory of the farm. You've had it in the family since 75, how did you end up taking it on?
Yep, my landlord is Christchurch Oxford College, one of the colleges and my father and well the whole family came here 1975, father passed away in the mid-90s. I got a tendency from then onwards and there's a possibility of the third generation after this. So unfortunately my wife and I met each other bit too late in life so hopefully one of my nieces and nephews will take it on instead but we'll see otherwise it goes back so it's a bit of a waste although farming opportunity chance but yes. So that's we're here for my lifetime so I'm very fortunate to have that as long as I keep on paying the rent, which is of course I think too much.
So what's the current state of like, could you describe like for listeners that are not from the uk? Like what is a tenancy agreement? Just in simple terms.
It'S an agreement between you and the owner which is the treasurer of Christchurch Oxford and it's an agreement that's certain length of time. But back in the 70s they wanted to have stable farming commitments and so 70s and 80s I think they had it with the aha tenancy which is Agricultural holding act tenancy where it's for three generations. My father was the first, I'm the second so there's a possibility of a third and there are other tenancies called FBT which is Farm business tenancies, which are very much a shorter one, but can be as long as they wish to have them for. And you can renew my ones for my lifetime. You can renew them when you. Whenever they want it, whenever. So that they run out. But that's it. Basically. I can't. I'm very limited in what I can do. I can't really put the land out to contract and get somewhere else to farm it because the money won't be needed for that and plus I'm restricted on what I can do. There's all things within agricultural law that you can and can't do and. And things like that.
Anyway, yeah, it's a quite common format in the UK for land owned by larger estates, isn't it? It's quite a common situation.
Indeed. Indeed. If I'm right, it's up to sort of 40, 50% of the land area is actually tenanted. Well, I don't know. Finger in the air. I don't know. I don't know precisely. So don't quote me on that.
Could you tell us about. You've got a neighbour who was a pioneer in organic production. Can you speak a bit about that when that came around and how that's influenced you?
Well, back in the 70s, a chap. Well, a couple, Pat and Daphne Saunders from Step Farm, Farringdon. They were one of the first to convert to organics and they had a dairy herd and they were. One of the instigators is sitting on SCO up, which is Organic Milk Suppliers Cooperative. Funny thing is, my wife used to work for a land agent and she also developed the OMSCO bit. So it's a small world and so, yes, they started it back in the 70s and persuaded a lot of people in the area to go organic. Where in the UK or in Britain, the national average is 3% of the land area is down to organics, but around the founding area it's gone up to 30%. Sorry, you just went black anyway. Yes, it's gone up to 30%. So she misses Saunders, then Daphne Saunders, unfortunately not with us anymore, was a great persuader and she encouraged a lot of people to go down the organic Gallic Lumin. We all have gone down. Well, a lot have gone down there and this really quite a force around here. We tried to set up a marketing hub within the Farrington area, but that really hasn't come to anything where we try to have also your reco thing, but at least this actually to put it into a designated organic shop, but it came to nothing. So. But it's quite hard from my point of view. I sell a ton of barley. Not many housewives or ton of wheat or whatever. Not many housewives want to go and have a put back in their bunker to make them roll it and mill big things to do whatever they want to do. So yes, I market my grain through organic algae, which is a farmer led organization which is. So it's all the money is plowed into the business. It's not like a big cargo where all the money gets siphoned off somewhere else. It is very. And you feel a part of it. You have to become a member and you really feel your party and you're well looked after.
