New system helps Neil Heseltine to work better, not harder

NEIL HESELTINE is an organic livestock farmer and chair of the Yorkshire Dales National Park authority. He has radically changed the farming system at Hill Top over the past decade, to focus on its environmental benefits. However, there has been no compromise on business profitability and in fact his hourly ‘pay rate’ has increased as a result.

A conversation with Neil reveals a fascinating mix of hard-headed businessman and environmental enthusiast. He has firm opinions about the way in which farmers should value their input.

“I think that we deserve to earn a fair hourly rate and that the figure should be calculated with the exclusion of support payments,” he said. “Prior to restructuring the farm business, I was working a 70-80 hour week for an annual income of about £12,000. That works out at roughly £3 an hour.

“My goal is to earn a ‘wage’ of £20 an hour but quality of life must also be considered, so I have cut my input to an average 40 hours a week. At present I am halfway towards reaching my target pay rate. This has been achieved by adopting a much more extensive management approach for the cattle and increasing their numbers, as well as cutting down on the size of the sheep flock.

“I am not comfortable with the fact that many people in agriculture continue to work very long hours for very little reward. This has led to physical and mental health issues in some cases and the situation needs to be addressed. In addition, the current governmental support is helping to maintain lifestyles and its removal will have a significant effect.”

The Malham farm, which was awarded full organic status last May, is run in partnership with Neil’s partner, Leigh Weston. The business is a past winner of the National Trust’s ‘Farming with Nature’ award and participated in the Limestone Country Project, which was set up to protect the region’s important wildlife sites through the introduction of native cattle breeds. The 2002-2008 Project saw the introduction of Belted Galloways at Hill Top in 2003.

Neil is a member of the Pasture-Fed Livestock Association (PFLA), which has played a defining role in the route taken by the business. He is also a parish councillor and sits on the steering committee for the Nature Friendly Farming Network.

The farm itself covers a total of almost 1,100 acres of hill land. It includes a 200-acre block rented from Neil’s parents, with the remainder on tenancies with three separate landlords. The steading is owned, although it was originally rented by his grandparents in 1950. The land is challenging in farming terms, ranging from 800-1,800 feet above sea-level, classified as severely disadvantaged and located in a high rainfall area.

It was membership of the PFLA, combined with a visit to the 2012 Oxford Farming Conference, which prompted the evaluation of the farm business in 2012, he explained. The PFLA encourages producers to conserve grass to carry stock over the winter, while the Conference focused largely on sustainable agriculture.

Neil stressed the importance of making decisions on an individual farm basis.

“My starting point was to take a detailed look at the various enterprises in their own right. The restructuring at Hill Top changed the ratio of cattle to sheep, but it is certainly no magic formula.

“When I am evaluating farm productivity I leave out all support payments and I also allocate a land rental figure. There is a bunk barn and a holiday cottage on site, but these are linked to other family members and do not contribute towards farm income. My main priority is to run the farm as a stand-alone business and the diversification projects must not mask the performance of the core-farming enterprises.”

Ewe numbers had peaked at 800, but stood at 400 when the main changes were implemented. By contrast, just 120 Swaledale ewes were lambed in mid-April this season. New for this year is a small flock of Wensleydales, which are being kept primarily for their wool yield.

Meanwhile, the farm was carrying 20 suckler cows at the start of the evaluation and today there are 50 Belted Galloway females, including followers, making a total of 160 head. They calve from mid-May until the end of July. Three years ago the farm joined the Countryside Stewardship Scheme; it has a five-year break clause option which can be triggered in 2023.

“The business assessment revealed that the income from sheep was three times as high as the income from cattle,” he said. “That was unsurprising, but I was shocked to discover that the cattle were actually the more profitable. Not only was their gross margin significantly higher, but the number of labour hours required for their management was much lower, due to the extensive system. At that time, the calves were being finished at about three years old.

“In terms of cash flow, the sheep look better on paper compared with the suckler herd, but once the cattle finishing system is up and running it out-performs the sheep enterprise in every aspect. I would emphasise that I am not ‘anti-sheep; a similar comparison on another farm could produce a very different result. The sheep are also a valuable land management tool, as well as being part of my cultural heritage.”

One of the best investments was the introduction of the Xero accountancy computer program. Purchased to analyse the farm accounts in 2012, it uses information downloaded from bank statements, which minimises the time spent on entering figures.

The sheep were formerly managed fairly conventionally and relied on concentrate feeding in the spring and summer. Like the cattle, their diet today relies exclusively on grazed grass. The ewes lamb in late April/early May, producing an average lambing percentage of 120. The Swaledale wether lambs are sold at a local auction market at 12-14 months, either as finished or as stores, while the females are retained or marketed for breeding. The Wensleydales are run for at least one shearing and the wool is in high demand.

The Belted Galloway herd can only be described as “minimal input,” he stressed.

“The first batch of eight Belted Galloway heifers was turned out on to a 100-acre block. They immediately raced off into the distance and I told myself that I might never see them again, but in fact they were placid and handled quietly. I walk among them daily and they are easy to manage when they are brought down from the hills for bull calf castration and tagging.

“The only time that the young stock see the inside of a building is when they are about to leave the farm. Last winter, I supplied forage to 15 older cows and their calves and the rest of the herd received nothing at all.

“I will admit that I am not yet quite brave enough to stop making silage altogether, but a percentage of the 40 acres of meadow ground is left uncut. The animals can be brought down to graze it; should winter conditions demand.”

Weaning is a natural process and calves are left with their dams until the cows are ready to calve again.

“By this time the calf has usually stopped suckling and the cow will leave the herd to calve by herself, before she eventually rejoins the herd with her new calf. At this point, I will be extra-vigilant with welfare checks, because in very rare cases the older calf may take the colostrum.

“As soon as I have two or three cows with calves, the group will be walked off the hill leaving the older calves behind. This avoids ‘weaning day,’ which used to be highly stressful for all concerned.”

Female Belted Galloway calves are retained as replacements, while male calves achieve an average of 320-350kgs deadweight from grazed grass and without routine medication. The steers take four to five years to mature, in order to achieve the target weight gain.

“It takes time for Belted Galloways to grow on a very extensive system,” he says. “In their final year, they will add the equivalent of 40kgs deadweight, which is worth an extra £150/head. It costs less than that amount to retain them for the extra 12 months, so the policy is worthwhile.”

Mr Heseltine believes that human intervention can stifle the natural instincts of cattle. Left to their own devices and with a large acreage to roam, they are very good at fending for themselves as long as they are provided with the right habitat, he stated. Eight cows with the previous year’s calves and a bull have been allocated a 90-acre block of grassland, for example.

The steer beef is sold to wholesaler butchers and to a local farm shop, with a small quantity of boxed beef sold direct to individual households. It is hoped that in the future the lamb will also be sold direct and wholesale. Having established a workable farming system, Mr Heseltine is turning his attention to the marketing of his Pasture Fed Livestock Association-certified beef and lamb.

“This is an area of the business that needs further development, particularly as the farm has attained organic status,” he said. “I think I have a good product and I would like to make more of it; not just financially, but in a way that reflects the much wider benefits of the farming system. This includes the high level of respect that is paid to the animal during its lifetime.

“It is important to get the message across that the cattle and sheep are being used as a conservation tool, acknowledging their role in creating wildlife habitat and enhancing the environment in general. I create an environment for the domestic farm animals in the same way that I create habitat for wildlife. The limiting factor is the long winter period; both for the cattle and for the wildlife. They all have the same requirements: water, food, and the opportunity to reproduce.”

Regenerative agriculture is a description that has been bandied about for some time.

“I do not regard my system as regenerative agriculture, although I am working to all its guiding principles,” he said. “The issue is much more complex than that, because account must be taken of other forms of regeneration, including economic, environmental and social. More time for family life and outside interests has been a real positive outcome of the changes that have been made.”

Find Hilltop Farm on Twitter and Instagram at @hilltopfarmgirl.