Rebekah Housden: This land may be ‘marginal’ but it’s also reliable

“Unprofitable… unfeasible… marginal.”

These are just three of the descriptions given to land in this area in the past 12 months by bigwigs, local MPs, forestry agents and even HM the King.

(The latter was written in an apologetic tone in response to my letter regarding the planting of farmland in our area in the name of a Coronation Wood.)

See also: Rebekah Housden: Beer-related therapy (in moderation) can help

About the author

Rebekah Housden

Rebekah Housden is based at Roadhead in Cumbria, and has worked on a farm with 600 ewes for 11 years. She also shares a smallholding of 90 ewes. She is a first-responder, a parish clerk, runs a community bar and caters for rural weddings. 

Read more articles by Rebekah Housden

It’s true – for eight months of the year, you can’t travel on the ground with a tractor. And in the height of winter, even the farm dog looks to be moving in slow motion as she gathers the ewes.

You couldn’t outwinter your racehorses on this ground, and you can certainly forget about ideas such as commercial lettuce-growing.

But as the public are educated (brilliantly) by Jeremy Clarkson, many people now understand the battle we face with the elements.

How such a long wet season could have an effect on on the supermarket shelves, never mind how it might spell disaster for a family farm.

Cumbria, as a county, is the second biggest producer of meat and milk in the UK, which is impressive when it is mainly made up of water.

So as I watch the trailer roll out of the yard with our weekly consignments of grass-reared prime lambs, let me tell you what our unfarmable corner of the country can do.

We can, have and will produce the same amount of beef, lamb and milk every year – whether they’re the wettest years in memory or drought-stricken like 2025.

It’s often not easy, and regularly contains swear words, but this marginal land has a facet of its own – reliability.

The feasibility of a farm cannot be judged on its ability to grow high-value arable crops, any more than a fish can be judged on its ability to climb a tree.

If climate change is going to have so much control over the production of food, the country has to stop ignoring the farmers in the corner, who can, quite literally, bring the same amount of produce to the table, come rain or shine.