Archive Article: 2000/03/17
Ian Brown
Ian Brown is a third
generation tenant on the
156ha (385-acre) Lee Moor
Farm, Rennington, Alnwick,
Northumberland where he
grows winter wheat, barley
and oilseed rape as well as
spring peas
TO celebrate the big 50 – no, not mine, but that of Browns as tenants at Lee Moor farm – I plan to have an open house/farm on March 25, so feel free to call in.
I could pay tribute to my bank and the cast of hundreds who have made Lee Moor what it is today, but then I am a farmer and not an actor. So we will chalk up the milestone and get on with it.
Spring protein peas have been our main focus recently. We have sown 4ha (10 acres) of Espace, 40% of the total area to be sown and would have done more but a sudden rainstorm stopped us in our tracks. The rest of our 1999 seed crop of Espace has been collected and, hopefully, is being sown up and down the country by now.
No fertiliser is on yet and winds have been strong in the past few weeks, strengthening plans for a wind energy project for the business park.
Our oilseed rape, Contact, has come through the winter quite well without too much pigeon damage. A Goshawk living in the woods next to the two fields has supplemented the effect of the gas cannon and occasional shooters during the past five months I suspect.
I am now running the training centre on the farm and hosted a conference called Developing the local food economy, in conjunction with the Soil Association and the National Trust. The event looked at direct marketing, farmers markets and adding value to food products. In Northumberland there is a real opportunity to draw value from the beautiful landscape and this is one way to do it, I believe.
The beginnings of an idea to get both UK and EU funding into our parish, which involves farmers and everybody else working together for mutual benefit is forming in my mind. More to follow on this. *
Everybody is welcome, says Ian Brown. He is throwing open the gates at Lee Moor Farm, near Alnwick, to celebrate 50 years as tenants.