Holistic Thinking at Fernhill Farm - by Jen Hunter

In 2015 I was on my Nuffield Farming Scholarship travels and ended up not being able to cross the border into Argentina from Patagonia and this was the best result I could have wished for …

Staying on a sheep farm committed to mob grazing their multipurpose merinos to produce fine micron fibres, nutrient dense mature sheep meats, and helping the land rebuild rich green swathes of grasses, with its protective shrubs to help newly emerging young trees - I found my light bulb moment

Recognising this as a similar scenario to Fernhill Farm, having these extra days to explore the surrounding farms is where I came to truly realise the power of the hoof having beneficial or other consequences, as the ruminants we take full responsibility for are capable of shifting landscape into dessert or dense grasslands. Travelling around Patagonia, I could see bare ground and the odd sheep family moving through the semi-dessert looking for new green shoots to consume*. Heading back to the ranch where I was staying at the end of the days exploration, the clearly defined greenness all around, showing new life emerging at every level from soil surface to the tree tops was the familiar welcome we enjoy at Fernhill.

*”Isn’t it a bit ironic and disturbing that the word consume can mean to eat, drink or ingest and at the same time mean to completely destroy as that of a fire - we are all considered consumers, how much of a coincidence is this link between us being labelled consumers and the plight of the earths surface and atmosphere right now - from now on, I shall try consume my mind with more positivity about Humans and pollution”

The two farmers at this ranch are Hose and his wife, Elizabeth Barkla originally from New Zealand with their young family. Hose, at the time was the OVIS21 vet and we all enjoyed several evenings talking sheep and shearing and wool production and here I was introduced to Holistic Management and the Savory Institute as well as the 6M Ha Patagonia Project - all relating land health to livestock movements and sustainable clothing.

As many Nuffield Scholars say, this was the light bulb moment we all hope will arrive somewhere along our travels, without the daily grind to block our thoughts and the ability to listen to others and see our lives away from our home commitments. Being denied the opportunity to travel through Argentina allowed the mind to really explore what was before my eyes and the green lushness was clearly defined within the boundaries of this sheep farming ranch.

This was thanks to electric fences acting like the wolf to drive ruminants closer together, increasing that vital animal impact. Large mobs moved on regularly cannot selectively graze so fundamentally strip back all plant species in their path, removing all vegetation in their path, whilst spreading and planting seeds with their cloven hooves. With each passage of land parcel, they regularly release urine and faeces to irrigate and fertilize the soil, and trample old decaying plants onto the soil surface ready for the magic of microbes, insects and invertebrates to happen. They leave behind an evenly grazed, manicured and mulched surface, enabling new seedling to emerge in the next growing season, and this is the true meaning for regenerative - the ability to allow seedlings to emerge, and existing shrubs and trees to thrive in rich soils with equal competition.

Sounds so simple and obvious but Human’s have not been creating the correct environment for ruminants to replenish beds of rich soil to support a natural crop of mixed seedlings, semi mature and mature plants to coexist and the end result is desertification. Ruminants left to wander simply take the parts of the plant they like / need, resulting in over-grazing and under-grazing of different species at the same time, partial rest and reductionist management, none of which create a seedbed for future generations. All plants like to live next to each other, look at nature, its not tidy in rows, all one species at the same stage of maturity, its mixed ages, species, heights, leaf shapes, root depths and little if any soil shows itself to the sun, wind or rain - the first things bare soil does is cover itself again by feeding plants.

Finding Holistic Management gave me that feeling that “this is what I have been waiting for” as since 1998 when I graduated from Harper Adams with an Animal Science Degree, I headed straight into Organic, checked out Biodynamic, and continued to study Tropical Agriculture after my years in Uganda as a VSO (Voluntary Service Overseas) where mulching, rainwater harvesting, multi-cropping and recycling nutrients was common-place. Living on the equator for over 2 years, I learnt very quickly that the sun will burn bare skin and bare ground, and that a layer of protection is all that is needed to keep skin and the Earths crust moist and healthy.

We meet Christopher and Sheila Cooke from 3LM and immediately, Andy and I went back to school so to say, forgetting the things we had previously been taught at Agricultural Colleges to see our way to being fully retrained in Holistic Management in January 2018. We felt very fortunate to be due a family holiday to South Africa and during this time we headed to Zimbabwe to visit the infamous African Centre for Holistic Management with our two sons Kyle and Seth. The plane lands close to this ranch and a similar scenario appeared along either side of the ranch boundaries, one side covered with grasses and the other side bare soil, entirely related to ruminant movements across the land. We enjoyed sundowners with Allan and Jodie and hope our sons remember that moment as time goes on.

In 2020 we were delighted to join the EOV programme here in the UK, a system that would bench mark us against other farms but mostly, give us real evidence to keep and use and return to whenever we had a land issue to discuss. We received EOV status in 2021 and again 2022 - its an amazing feeling and we will provide links to report details when more time allows but for now, please see our EHI scores improving year on year, based on each field being measured for ecosystem processes.

More than all of this is the hope for the Land to Market platform being developed by Savory Institute which will allow us, as consumers to back brands that have taken the initiative to find growers who are actively making holistic decisions to improve environmental, economic, social and maybe political outcomes from their activities across the land.

Watch this space