The three Es

At FAI Farms we have been working for the last 10 years on trying to develop low input systems to produce food animals (beef, lamb, chicken and pork) that are environmentally sustainable, economically profitable, and ethically sound.

It’s quite simple really, we just feel that anything based on oil is going to be uneconomic in the future and we need to find the best ways to use what resources we have available to us, to farm in a way that is better for the environment, is more considerate for the animals, and makes a profit.

We call this the 3 Es and we have been working enterprises together to use manure from the livestock and rotational clover lays to build soil fertility, to then grow grain crops. At the same time we have built in hedges and tress as crops in their own right, but also to provide animals with shade and shelter, chickens a natural larder of bugs and grubs, and insects with an environment to thrive so that they can benefit the arable cropping.

We have also been working with particular breeds of animals, both to reduce our costs of production, and to ensure we are working with natural genetic advantages and animals that suit the particular environment we have. For example, much of the farm floods regularly both in the winter and increasingly in the summer. The sheep flock of 1,000 ewes is based on the Coopworth as the maternal line, which we cross with Texel or Suffolk to produce finished lamb. The Coopworth has a high natural resistance to intestinal worms, so we reduce our worming programme, saving money and shepherding time. We are also trying a flock of wool shedders to further reduce our costs.

The suckler cattle are based around the Saler cows, who, with their wide pelvic arch, mean we have almost zero calving problems, we don’t need to intervene with the cows and it keeps the vet bills down. As with the sheep, this is about having stock which do well off our marginal land, where we don’t have animal welfare challenges and we can still run an economic system.

Mike Gooding is Managing Director of FAI Farms: www.faifarms.co.uk