UNDERHELM FARM VISIT
Farm is located on the road from Keswick south to Windermere, just south of the Dunmail Raise. View can be seen to the right as you are southbound. Crags can be seen in the background: the high fell. The inbye land is the fields in the foreground.
Farmers are tenants: they rent the farm from the National Trust.
They have 40 acres on which they have a sheep flock of 300. Farm is not passed on to sons.
Sheep have to be given back at the end of the tenancy with a similar age ranking of sheep.
Baler working on grass as we passed to make silage (seldom get good weather for long enough to make hay in the Lake District)
Environment Agency oversees pollution problem. Silage pit and earth wall surrounding it. Spring contaminated in the past by manure.
Water table rises during heavy rain, and fills the soakaway which is used by the pit. This results in a reduction in oxygen levels in the stream below the farmland.
Grass is wrapped in plastic and placed on a concrete pad. Waiting for a machine to stack them, but not come despite a wait of 3 weeks.
Land is categorised as poor quality, partly due to the altitude, so that the farmers qualify for grants.
Has to be farmed intensively to be viable.
Use ammonium nitrate fertiliser in the spring.
Fertiliser is compound 25/0/16 N/P/K
Potassium is to help the stem of the plant develop strongly so that it can withstand the heavy rain in the area.
To help the plants grow they use an ‘Irish reseed’: daren’t plough due to high rainfall and possible erosion on the slopes.
Slurry and seeds are put on the land at the same time mixed together. They use Italian rye-grass which is a hybrid.
Seeds are put in slurry so that the nutrient is next to the seeds when they are placed on the ground. They are more aggressive than the native grass and swamp it, giving it a pure sward of grass.
This starts to also take over the native wildflowers, meaning less flower species. However, the sprayers can’t get into the corners of the fields and there are more species.
Can investigate this by using a quadrat in different areas of fields and counting the species, average sward height, no. of plants and looking at the shapes of seedheads.
Cows don’t like the extras and won’t eat buttercups unless they are forced to by being fenced off in a particular area of the field.
For other species like thistles and nettles have to use spot spraying to get rid of them.
English Nature has classed these meadows as being of low grade and will not pay them for maintaining them and therefore don’t mind them being re-seeded. They will also pay for the upkeep of walls.
Different areas of the farm are known by different names: Inbye, Intake and Fell.
Hoggholes are holes in the walls through which the sheep can pass in a controlled way and can be blocked by a piece of slate.
Bracken is toxic, as are buttercups and foxgloves which are also found in the farm.
Sheep eat anything else which is edible and particularly on the common grazing.
Environmentally Sensitive Areas (ESA’s) on the fells.
Aim is to regenerate the heather fell which is the natural Climax vegetation.
Rather than a subsidy they receive a payment for ‘income foregone’.
Farmers have worked out that for the work they do on the farm, they would be paid £2 / hour. The only extra labour costs are for silaging and for the hire of the machine which would otherwise cost them £40,000 for a machine which they would only use for 2 days (for the 2 cuts)
They are also not allowed to build in a way which would affect the landscape e.g wanted to have a silage tower, but have to have one underground which has a smaller capacity as a result.
Buy in hay.
Calves are reared in the summer and fattening lambs during the winter, and lambing during the spring.
60% of their income comes from milk.
Fleeces (from the Herdwick sheep) only bring in about 20p each. This wool snaps fairly easily and is not easy to spin into yarn.
Used for office carpets as it is fairly hard wearing.
Males sheep can raise about £15. Females are more valuable.
No income from lambs, as the £5 they get for each one is used to feed them up.
Receive CAP subsidies (Ewe premium)
£120 per cow, and get a decent subsidy.
Quota is leased.
Notes taken by A. Parkinson during Field Trip Visit in July 1999