As manager of the 1173ha (2900 acres) of in-hand land and woodland at Chillington Estate, Andrew Blenkiron’s responsibilities are many and varied. But as one of the 15-strong team in land agent Smiths Gore’s farm management department, his work takes him well beyond the estate’s boundaries.

“I’m also involved with looking after other farms in Northumberland, where I came from 10 years ago, and on Merseyside and in Oxfordshire,” says Mr Blenkiron.

“It’s difficult to balance my activities here and perform my other roles. And it gets extremely challenging at harvest when people elsewhere are crying out for budgets and I’m trying to drive the combine.

“But it’s very rewarding and there’s no chance of my getting stuck in one little world.”

At Chillington, owned by the Giffard family for more than800 years, his aim is to ensure the estate, which has a private shoot, is passed on to the next generation in at least as good a condition as now, with crops and livestock contributing as much as possible to the bottom line.

As well as overseeing the arable and livestock enterprises, Andrew Blenkiron (right foreground) manages the extensive woodland at Chillington where, as pictured, NPTC courses are conducted.

“We have 1300 acres of combinable crops plus 300 which we farm on contract, unusually as landlord, for a tenant. And we have 500 acres of grass which supports 1700 breeding ewes and 35 Longhorn cattle.”

The drought-prone light sandy loams limit yield potential, he explains.

“Crops can burn up badly in June, and we struggle to get 3.25t/acre of wheat.”

The generally poorly structured soils and small fields rule out minimum tillage, he adds. “So we still plough and combination drill to try to get some air into them.

“Our average field size is just 16 acres. It used to be only 13.5 when I came here. But we’re heavily into Countryside Stewardship – there are 10 miles of grass margins – and I reckon we saw a 0.2t/acre increase in yields when we took out all the areas beside the woods.”

To help build fertility, and especially phosphorus levels, Mr Blenkiron has a “straw for muck“deal with a dairying neighbour who also takes forage maize from the farm. He also applies 12,000t/yr of Simpro green waste compost from another neighbour’s business.

“Because of the constraints on yield we try to grow added-value varieties. Half our wheat is Soissons which outyields many of the feeds we’ve tried. And we’ve only had one field that failed to get in excess of the Group 1 premium – in 1999 when we had 8in of rain at harvest!”

In theory the land is suitable for vegetables, and leeks and broccoli have been grown for a neighbour. “But although we have a 65acre Capability Brown lake fed by streams we have no abstraction licence.”

Added-value Soissons accounts for half the wheat Andrew Blenkiron grows on Chillington’s light land.

The risk of spring drought means the rotation is winter crop-based with wheat and breaks of oilseed rape and beans. But it also includes barley followed by stubble turnips for the sheep. Winter beans ploughed in after turnips even at the end of January give surprisingly good yields, he says.

BASIS-qualified Mr Blenkiron welcomes extra agronomy advice from the AICC via member Bryce Rham who took over this season’s crops from retiring Tony Howells.

“I also value the buying power of its local group, Farmadvisers.

“Thankfully we don’t have blackgrass – yet – but ryegrass is building.”

Grain storage on the farm is best described as “diverse”, with drying dependent on two mobile Opico machines, and much of the rape and some of the Soissons being sold at harvest.

“We’ve recently upgraded the combine to a second-hand 24ft cut NH 860 to reduce the need for drying.” But some re-investment in storage is inevitable, he suspects.

He does all the marketing, using futures and options where realistically priced. “I’ve sold 40% of our wheat on an option for January2009 at £122/t at a cost of £12/t.

“I also try to work out the overall production cost per tonne. For harvest 2006 it was £92. I haven’t checked 2007 yet.”

Apart from stockman Tim Cooke, the only other full-time farm staff are tractor drivers John Dunbar and Darren Simmons. So given the amount of other estate work involved, especially with the woodland during the winter, there are rarely idle moments.

Recently a waterway connected to the lake has been dredged, and Mr Simmons also took advantage of an NPTC training course in tree surgery run on the estate by Rodbaston College.

Chillington Farm

• • 1174ha estate – quarter woodland
• • Light drought-prone land so all winter cropping
• • Wheat, OSR, beans, barley & stubble turnips
• • Extensive Countryside Stewardship