FARMING ESTATE WITH A SENSE OF HISTORY
FARMING ESTATE WITH A SENSE OF HISTORY
Behind the scenes at
Grimsthorpe is a 5200ha
(13,000-acre) farming estate
based around 24 tenanted
farms. David Cousins talked
to the farm manager of the
biggest of these, 1130ha
(2800-acre) Park Farm,
while Edward Long looked
at the history and philosophy
of the estate itself
YOU dont have to have an appreciation of history and architecture to work at Grimsthorpe estate, but it almost certainly helps.
In fact it is probably no coincidence that before he came here in 1989, farm manager, Richard Lidstone, used to manage Cressing Temple Farms in Essex, site of some of the most beautiful old barns in Britain.
Some farmers might hate it, but Mr Lidstone plainly loves the fact that in among the fields are a castle, a park, 17th century avenues and ancient horse-rides, even the odd folly or two. Not to mention a couple of SSSIs and a whole series of events near the castle that require particular skill in sorting out grazing.
Of the 24 tenanted farms that make up Grimsthorpe Estate, Park Farm is by far the biggest and rents make an important contribution to the upkeep of the castle itself.
Fifty years ago there were 60 workers on Park Farm alone, and even in 1989 there were 16 staff on more or less the same acreage and mix of enterprises. Now there are six staff looking after arable, beef, sheep and pig enterprises and in all ways it is a thoroughly modern set-up.
Arriving for his first view of the estate, Mr Lidstone was surprised and pleased at the terrain. Instead of the billiard-table-flat fields he was expecting, here was undulating country more reminiscent of the gentler parts of N Yorkshire than the county famed for the flatness of its fens. In fact, Grimsthorpe sits on a limestone ridge that runs from Stamford to Lincoln. Scenic it may be, but it also means that he has to cope with more soil-types than he would ideally like.
"We have everything – limestone brash, silts, poor-draining clays," he says. "In fact we have very few fields with a single soil type, which means that variable ripening can be a problem."
* Arable
All of Park Farms 970ha (2400 acres) of arable is in combinable crops.
Cropping for 1998/99 is impressively varied – 352ha (870 acres) of first wheats, 48ha (119 acres) of second wheats, 167ha (413 acres) of winter barley, 73ha (180 acres)of winter oilseed rape, 39ha (96 acres) of industrial rape on set-aside, 97ha (240 acres) of peas, 102ha (252 acres) of winter beans, 24ha (59 acres) of winter linseed, 41ha (101 acres) of spring linseed, 16ha (39 acres) of game cover and 9ha (22 acres) of permanent set-aside. Some of the set-aside is transferred to the estate in Scotland.
Yields are constrained by limited rainfall (23in a year) and a tendency of some of the stonier and thinner fields to run out of moisture in dry years. At the time of going to press, 1999 crops were still being harvested, but a good year like 1997 saw averages of 8t/ha (3.25t/acre) for milling wheats, 8.6t/ha (3.5t/acre) for feed wheats and 3.1t/ha (1.25t/acre) for rape.
* Pigs
Richard Lidstone admits to a fondness for outdoor pigs, which may explain why Park Farm went back into them in 1992 after an absence of several years.
This time, though, the herd of 220 Landrocs and replacements is outdoors on a 12ha (30-acre) site and moves around the farm so that any one field wont be occupied again for six years.
Progeny go into the old pig buildings at three weeks and are sold to Hargreaves at Spalding at 68kg average deadweight. Mr Lidstone is pleased with the progress of the unit and relieved that prices have crept up to 82p/kg (mid-July) from a low of 65p/kg in January. But, as he puts it: "All we need is for prices to go up."
* Beef
With 150ha (370 acres) of permanent pasture, most of it parkland, steep banks, or in SSSIs, there is plainly a need for some "four-legged lawnmowers".
Hence the 120-head single suckler herd, mainly Limousins, though increasingly with genetic input from British breeds.
Single suckler calves are weaned at Park Farm and go to Grimsthorpes sister estate at Drummond in Perthshire in November to be fattened. "We run the herd on a fairly low-input basis," he says. " They do not get concentrates and seem to thrive. They are also very lightly stocked, so we get the extensification grant on some of the permanent pasture." Cattle are also run on some of the SSSI land and on the parkland around the castle, though they have to be moved off when there are events on at Grimsthorpe.
* Sheep
The same lorry that takes the 90 or so calves to Scotland in November does not come back empty.
It is loaded up with replacement ewe lambs at Drummond, bringing them down to Lincolnshire to graze the parkland and 40ha (100 acres) of stubble turnips. In spring they make the journey back to Scotland again.
It may seem a long way to cart sheep, he admits, but it does the pastures at Grimsthorpe good and saves the cost of over-wintering the sheep off the farm at Drummond. It has also helped allow a new organic project to be started.
"We have just started the conversion process on all our permanent pasture here," he says. "All sheep and cattle will be organic both here and at Drummond. The only change will be putting muck on the ground rather than P and K and topping rather than spraying."
Life for a farm manager on estate land is slightly different from that on an "ordinary" farm, adds Mr Lidstone. There are two syndicated shoots at Grimsthorpe and ground cover is rented to each. The relationship between farm manager and gamekeepers is amicable, he says. There is also a herd of wild red deer, as well as rather too many fallow deer than the estate would like, necessitating an occasional cull.
The estate owners pretty much leave him to get on with the job of farming. "They like hedges to be grown up to about 8ft high and only trimmed every other year. Also, we have responsibility for 25 pensioners houses on the estate, as well as a lot of old farm buildings, not all used."
But then it was the prospect of farming on a historic site that appealed to Richard Lidstone when he first came to the estate. He plainly savours having a magnificent castle in the middle of the farm, ancient rides running through many of the fields and estate roads that stretch, in some cases, for nearly three miles. And having a full range of farming enterprises makes life interesting, too, especially for someone from a mixed farming background.