FARM NAME: Rose Dale’s Organic Farm, Buckinghamshire
FARM SIZE: 90 ha
DESCRIPTION: Rose Dale’s Organic Farm sits on land farmed by her family for over 60 years. When Rose took over the farm in 2019, she was determined to produce healthy, nutritious food in a way that was nature-friendly, regenerative, and looks after soil, water, and air for future generations. She has since built a business committed to these values.
All Rose’s meat is 100% organic, grass-fed, and sustainably farmed and with land use including permanent pasture, herbal leys, meadows, ridge and furrow, the farm has been awarded certifications from The Soil Association and Pasture for Life.
Rose’s farm is also a good example of the average farm size in the UK.
THEIR APPROACH TO FEEDING THE SOIL:
Rose is working on a holistic, closed system where she has the right number of ruminant livestock for what her farm can support, and importantly, where she doesn’t need to buy external inputs.
On the road to this ambition, Rose gives her Gotland sheep and breeding herd of 100 long-horns cattle, long roaming lives on her land, breathing life back into the soil and supporting the grow of biodiverse vegetation.
The manure from livestock naturally fertilises the soil without the use of chemicals and by moving cattle through paddocks frequently they prevent excessive churning up of the land, particularly in rainy periods.
They compost with farm manure in a windrow style, aiming at 2.5m-3.5m high, but are also working to integrate microbes into their windrows to help regulate their nitrogen-carbon ratios and to support the growth of organic matter.
The farm is also looking at incorporating soil-friendly microbes when their livestock come inside for winter through water incorporations sprayed on bedding and feed. By getting animals to ingest the microbes over winter, spraying microbes on each new layer of bedding, and then spraying the bedding with a final microbial dose before moving it - they’ll gain a perfect addition to their windrows which can then be left to mature for use in 8 –10 weeks.
Spraying the bedding with microbes at each new layer helps kick-start the fermentation process, breaking things down throughout the winter so when it is taken out in spring, it is already halfway there.
CHALLENGES:
On the farm Rose and her team are still working on ensuring their FYM and straw come together more homogenously so their compost composition of nitrogen and carbon is more integrated. To do this, they are looking into running their outputs through a muck spreader with a 3-nozzle rail spraying microbes throughout. This enriched mix can then be reassembled into their windrows.
Microbe misting barns has also been suggested as something to improve compost quality but because Rose’s barns are so high and have open sides it’s not been an option at the moment.
Another challenge Rose and her team are facing is how to make the most out of constricting mid-tied stewardship schemes. As a result, their looking into biodiversity net gain schemes to make the most of their plans for nature, including mosaic water habitats.
Rose would also love to add chickens to the farm in the future which could then be integrated onto livestock rotations after the cattle.
TOP TIPS:
Think creatively about ways to integrate microbes into your farm system whether it is directly on the land, into bedding inputs or livestock feed.
Be wary of building windrows inside as they can be prone to dry out.
You can spray microbes onto barn bedding with a backpack or a fogger.
Sell directly to consumers who value the holistic work and nutritional value of her produce.
If planning on rotational livestock, don’t have a fixed trough to avoid poaching and churning up of the land around it.