Challenges of farming by the sea

Stand at the yard gate at Bank End Farm, Cockerham, and the view across the Lune estuary into Morecambe Bay and the Irish Sea can be breathtaking – but there is a price for the stunning views and bracing sea air.

The sea can bring waves to within 50 yards of Stuart and Caroline Lawson’s farmyard (once it’s even reached it) and dictates how their 280 ewes have to be managed.

“The tide table is our bible,” says Stuart. “We couldn’t farm without it. It tells us when the high tides are due and we have to live and farm around them.”

It also has to be a part of any decision-making that involves being away – be it a day out, a trip to the mart or even shopping at the supermarket.

“You always have to think about the tide before you make any plans. You’ve got to know what the height of it is going to be that day and what time the high tide will be.

“All that information is in the tide table. It tells me when there’s going to be a 30ft tide – that’s the height that will be deep enough to cover the marsh and means the sheep have got to be moved,” says Stuart.

The sheep themselves aren’t much help. “They’d stay out there and drown if we didn’t bring them in!” he says.

The 30ft tide also just covers the concrete road that runs along the edge of the marsh and leads to Bank End Farm. But the highest of all are 34ft, and when they happen the only way in and out of the farm is along the top of the embankment that serves as a sea-wall defence to protect the farm’s low-lying meadows from being constantly flooded.

The farm has 100 acres of good-quality pasture, as well as the 300 acres of tidal salt-marsh grazings.

“About seven days out of every month the marsh is covered by the sea twice each day – more in winter than in summer. It covers it to a depth of up to 5ft, but this is a very tidal marsh and, while the sea can come up to within 50 yards of the gate, it can also be a mile away from us at low tide.”

But high tides can occur at any time of the day or night. A 30-footer at midnight means sheep have to be gathered well in advance and moved to an area of slightly higher marsh ground that won’t be covered. A spell of high tides can last for a week, which means stock have to come off the marsh for the duration.

“It just becomes a routine part of how you’ve got to manage a flock,” says Stuart.

Wind chill

The effect of the wind can never be ignored, says Stuart. “If it’s blowing from the south-west it can alter things a lot in terms of how high the tide will be and how quickly it will get here. So we have to keep a close eye on the weather as well.

“Even before we go on holiday, we have to think about what the tides will be doing while we are away. Before we even go to a travel agent to book a holiday, we have to get the tide table out and start checking. We can’t leave part-time staff here with the job of coping with them,” says Stuart.

This vast expanse of spectacular Lancashire coastline can also be treacherous. Deep gullies that feed the water across the marsh from the sea with remarkable speed can also prove precipitous for sheep that graze too close to the edge. Once in a gulley, few can clamber to safety.

All this disruption has its advantages, however, as the water leaves enough saline deposits behind to produce a unique grass sward.

Not only does this sea-washed herbage impart its own flavour to the prime lambs that graze it, but it also helps keep the flock healthy. “We don’t worm our lambs, there’s no need to. The salt in the grass keeps the worm burdens in check.”

The Lawsons launched their Cockerham Salt Marsh Lamb brand 12 years ago and now sell direct via their website (www.saltmarsh-lamb.co.uk) and through farmers’ markets.

“The salt in the grazing acts as a tenderiser and gives the meat a sweeter taste. It’s a delicacy in Europe, especially in the Normandy Region of France where it is known as Pre Salé,” says Caroline.

While the north-west has had its wettest summer on record, any change in climate has yet to affect the height of the tides.

Ebb and flow

“My father came here in 1936 and the tides go no higher now – without a wind behind them – than they did then,” says Stuart, although he points out that the salt marsh is expanding as more silt is deposited and more grazing gets established further out into the estuary.

Meanwhile, close to the south Cumbria hamlet of Flookburgh, Philip and Julie Wilson and their family farm sheep and grow potatoes on the edge of a tidal marsh. With the peaks of the Lake District fells in the far distance and the sweep of the bay immediately in front of the house at the Wilson’s Sandgate Farm, it’s no wonder the owners of the holiday lodges on the farm just can’t keep away.

The farm, which has been in the family since 1875, has 500 acres of marsh grazing, stretching out three quarters of a mile into the Leven estuary. It’s growing, too. The problem is that the newly established marsh grazing is about 2ft lower, which means sheep have to be taken off the “new marsh” on a lower tide because the flock prefers to graze this newer grass.

As well as watching the tide tables, Philip has to be ever aware of the “wind in the water”. “That’s the real danger,” he says. “If the wind is in the water in the Irish Sea, the tide can come in a lot faster and deeper.”

During the winter months the flock can be off the marsh for 10-day stretches when the tides are at their highest – and good dogs for gathering are a must.

“We’ve had some narrow squeaks over the years when the wind has got up unexpectedly. And we’ve even gone out on to the marsh in the dark when we’ve felt the sheep were at risk,” says Philip.

He admits it can be frightening when there’s darkness all around you and all you can hear is the water coming in and filling the deep gullies that run over the marsh.

“The tide makes a roaring sound when it’s coming in, but you can get good dogs to work if you’ve a decent lamp,” says Philip, whose parents live in a cottage even closer to the edge of the marsh and who have had sea-spray blowing over the roof on days of the highest tides.

Living so close to the edge of the sea clearly has its challenges and dangers, but those who farm with the tides are adamant about one thing – they wouldn’t want to farm anywhere else.