Clare Hill
Farm manager
Farm name
Planton Farm
Farm type
Mixed-Farm
Location
Shropshire, England
Farm size
32 hectares
Primary soil type
Medium clay loam
Temperature range
-5° – 28° degrees Celsius, USDA 8A
Average precipitation
780mm/year
Social structure
Farm business is registered as a company, which is owned by 3 shareholders in a partnership.
Sales channels
Eggs and some vegetables: sell directly to two outlets (local café and organic shop)
Beef & chicken: primal meat, operates as a platform – a shop-in-shop
Produce
Farm side: Pasture-raised regenerative beef, vegetables (tiny part), pasture-raised eggs and chicken (biggest),
Educational services (separate from the farm side)
Contact
Planton Farm
Planton Farm‘s transition to regenerative farming
Climate Farmer since
2021
Previously organic
History
- Clare was working in the food industry as agricultural manager for supermarkets and national farmer unions. However she missed the practical sides of food production
- 2012 she started farming, got some sheep, and got into some grazing patterns, and more and more into grass-feed integration
- 2014 they started a share farming contract with a landowner and scaled up the sheep herd
- 2017 She took over FAI farms (organic- but max productivity)
- 2019 they acchieved a complete pasture only management
Previous practices
- Reducing inputs (mostly grass feed) until fully pasture feed only
- Total mixed ration (TMR)
- Grains based in winter diet
- De-stocking the sheep
- Organic rotation (once per season)
- Overall a rather static system
Investment costs
- Water infrastructure: pipes, tank, barring the installation)
- direct sales infrastructure: knowledge and storing of the meat
- consideration of shade and shelter
- Tree planting: time, energy for devaluating the land
- destocking: issues with accounting: looked like a loose lost while reducing the stock, also systems had to get back to balance
New practices
Challenges so far
- Latter of the land lord to not “taking care of the land” – as they stopped topping the gras
- Mindset of others/ society: Non understanding of the outsides about their managements decisions, receiving push backs on the grazing management while dealing with other peoples panic (OPP)
Outcomes so far
-
Measure with soil mentor, EOV, baseline carbon test (seeing in the future where it goes)
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Ecological changes through the process:diversity of plant species and grasses in the pasture (ancient grasses)
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diversity of plant species and grasses in the pasture (ancient grasses)
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herbal ley option (SFI): clover, plantain
- diversity of birds: owls on the farm, buzzards, etc.
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Learnings of your journey
Designing a regenerative system, really take a step back, consider the whole system, and ask youself what is it about? What your goals, what is your personal context? Making a plan of how you want your farm to look like: how profitabledo zou want/need to be?Do you want your children involved? Do you want to have holiday? Is it about full time or how much time can you dedicate?
It is about design a farming system around all those questions and consider them holistically. Afterwards, bring everyone needed on board.
“I got two children with 9 & 5, and I feel really scared about the future they will grow up into. I want to do as much as possible to help the world, through a way of growing food in a resilient ways. I want for them to learn how to do that, as survival skills might become more important than ever before. Hopefully that means also to provide a more secure space for every one of their generation.”
— The reason why Planton Farm decided to become a training farm
Future ambitions
Showing that a small scale farm can be profitable, as a whole food system, as we are growing much food in terms of volume of nutrition
Prove that you can make a living of an 80 acres farm. 80 acres is huge and more then enough to make a living from!
This farm is part of something bigger.
So can you. Apply for the Regenerative Agronomy Training.
Our partners
Our partners