Farming & Food
Grass provides the perfect diet for cattle and sheep. It is all they need to produce nutritious, healthy meat for people to cook and eat.
But grass can be tricky to manage. Its one aim in life is to grow, produce a seed head and then die. Only skilled grassland farmers can manage it to produce high quality animal food throughout the year – grazed out in the fields or given as conserved winter-feed, either dried as hay or pickled as silage.
The people I write about in these blogs are some of the best and most innovative farmers and chefs in the world. They look after their soils, their land and their animals and take great care to source and prepare the best meat possible. We should be proud of them all.
The future of farming involves cattle (amongst other things!)
A recent visit to Fobbing Farm, on the northern shore of the Thames Estuary at Tilbury, has uplifted my spirits. Young farmer George Young, returning home from a high-flying career in the City eight years ago, is bringing ideas, life and diversity back to a...
Grass and pasture drive regenerative farming practices
I remember taking a phone call in the back of a black cab in London from a founder member of the Pasture-Fed Livestock Association (PFLA) about ten years ago. He was suggesting I take out the word ‘regenerative’ from a press release I had written – because no-one...
Visiting farms during the pandemic
I usually visit many farms each year – to talk to and write about inspiring and innovative grassland farmers. Not so in 2020. I popped down to Cornwall and Devon early in January to do an article on alternative forage crops, and in February met a Dorset dairy farmer...
When dreams come true
I have always dreamt of herding cattle from horseback cowboy-style, across wide open spaces, through alpine pastures and along deep, salmon-red rocky canyons, and in and out of winding, rushing rivers. I loved the western TV series ‘The Virginian’, have ridden...
Groundswell hosts first ever Grass-Fed day
Groundswell hosts first ever Grass-Fed day. Hundreds of farmers attended the inaugural ‘No Till’ Groundswell day, organised by pioneering Hertfordshire farming family The Cherrys last year. In 2017, they added an extra day, which focused on bringing cattle back onto the land.
Free-range dairy is causing a stir!
With Pasture Promise milk now selling in 109 Asda stores and Waitrose milk being promoted heavily in their weekly newspaper – it looks like consumers are starting to care how cows spend their days.