PORTERS FARMS TELL US THE SECRETS OF FARM CONSERVATION

Mike Porter is the 3rd generation of a traditional farming family that has farmed in Walpole in Suffolk for over 110 years. Today Hillhouse Farm, is not only home for Mike and his family, but also the centre of a thriving agricultural business, working hard to create a greener future with conservation and education at the fore. Here Mike kindly tells us more about his farm and his growing alliance of sustainability projects…

 My Grandfather William Neave, moved here in 1912 from the village of Westhall only 4 miles away. In 1954, when he died, there were 16 people employed on the farm which was then about 500 acres.

I left school in 1968 and after 12 months practical, hands on learning with a farming neighbour, I went to Shuttleworth College before coming home with considerable experience.

Today our family consists of myself, Corinne my wife and 3 children; 2 girls (a nurse and a Police Officer) and James my son, who has recently joined me in the business with his wife Laura, who is now our part time secretary. Then we have an apprentice, Callum Hayes, who was Apprentice of the Year at Otley College in 2023. We also have two additional part time members of staff who help out over the busy harvest time. Corinne and I have recently celebrated our 50th Wedding Anniversary, with friends we have known since the big day. We trade as a limited company but remain a small family business.

Mike Porter, left, with son James and wife Corinne.

We are situated equal distance from Norwich and Ipswich and 8 miles in from the North Sea coast. The Farm is heavy clay land and an all-arable unit which farms 300 Hectares with contract farming of 3 other businesses making a total a total of 589 Hectares. Being on Hanslope and Ragdale soil’s, all crops are grown above the soil! All land is under drained, and mole drained regularly.

 We grow the following crops including:

A simple 7-year crop rotation is used across all farms with alternate years wheat with a break crop.

In 2003, we had a complete change of policy, in that we amalgamated with a neighbour giving (566 Ha) for cultivations but in 2006 this was dissolved and from 2010 we have been contract farming 132 Ha for a neighbour.

We purchase most of our requisites from FramFarmers, our local farmers buying group, who order on our behalf and use them for pool marketing of most of the grain which we produce. With Laura looking after the office, we are fairly Hi-tec with Xero and Gatekeeper for cropping records and mapping which is used for planning the SFI plans for all 4 businesses and GPS for steering the tractors up and down the field.

The Farm is run with Integrated Farm Management in mind, although this is nothing new to us, as we have always had a practical, whole farm business approach, looking after the land and environment as well as the economic and community aspects of our local area. We look at every square metre of the farm to see what the best use it and what can be made with it.

The farm has expanded considerably in the last 10 years since taking on more whole farm contracting where we order all goods for the farms when ordering our own requisites. A simple 7-year rotation is used across all farms with alternate years wheat with a break crop. We are part way on our journey with Re-gen Agriculture with no-Till and other modern ways of looking after our soil but with heavy clay soils I am questioning 100% no-tilling. Time will tell.

For our 2023 crops, we planted a mixture of arable crops as mentioned earlier but also have 15 hectares put to Stewardship land and Bee Hives producing pollen and nectar. We also have 24 hectares now set up as conservation areas of woodland, ponds and farm buildings and roads.

Our machinery are our work horses and we have a mixture of John Deere tractors and Manitou Forklift, along with several different drills, harrows, hedge cutters and a New Holland combine.

We have several grain stores and a biomass boiler and although we do not adhere regularly to a carbon footprint, we know that our electricity cost is less than half that what it used to be and our water consumption is about 300 cu m annually which we monitor.

Costs of fuel and energy have increased in recent years and hit all businesses but we are doing what we can to save on these rising costs.

Porter Farms – Farm Conservation

In the past the farm has been a member of NFU, and ACCS, PVGA, LEAF and has carried out considerable amount of research work for the “Birds Eye Sustainable Pea Project” and the “Forum for Sustainable Farming. We have also been involved with RSPB Farmer Alliance bird survey for 2 years (2001 & 2003). Varying research work has been carried out on the farm by the following organisations:

Over the last 10 years we are using renewables with 75Kw of solar panels, a 450 Kw biomass boiler using straw to dry 2000 tons of wheat. We also have a 47 Kw wood chip boiler which provides all the heat to the house and the offices.

In 2005 we entered the Stewardship Scheme and entered the Higher Level Scheme in May 2007, together with 5 or more Farm Educational visits per year, where we have up to 40 children a day from a Primary School within East Anglia and the visit is supported by the Country Trust who finance some of the transport costs.

Our hedges are specifically managed and will be cut alternate years so as to give food to the birds during the winter months. The farm has many wetlands and woodland habitats, which have been developed over many years including planting 6.3H of woods and 3.4 km of hedges, over the last 25 years.

There are still 25 ponds, which are actively managed, many producing Coarse fish for local fisheries companies, which net the ponds every 4 years. A thriving trout fishing lake created more than 34 years ago, is a forerunner of present day diversification, also including a 1 1/2 acre lake built in 1996, which is let to on day tickets at the door.

We also have a Caravan Club CL Site on the farm where we allow a maximum of 5 caravans on per night. Last season we had 600 caravan nights.

The art of supplementing natural nesting sites for birds is found with manmade nest boxes which we install and is well demonstrated with us seeing most species of birds catered for on the farm, and also bats.

We have 5 varieties of wild orchids flowering on the farm (Common Spotted, Early Purple, Bee, Pyramid, and Marsh). A small shoot operates on a non-commercial basis and our Poplar Farmhouse is let on a short hold tenancy, after having been totally renovated in 1998 at considerable expense, including 1/10 hectare of plasterboard!

In 2006 we finished rebuilding the outbuildings near the farmhouse, for use of the caravan site and 2 offices to let. This work was grant aided by a DEFRA RES a grant and this project was supported under the England Rural Development Programme by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund.

Also, a Biomass boiler was fitted to heat the house and offices with woodchip that has also been supported with a RHI grant, which was completed in June 2016.

We have used the Witham Group for our oil supplies for all tractors and ancillary equipment for over 40 years, when they first started selling into East Anglia. I think that it is important to have a good relationship with your suppliers and have contact with them whenever we need them.

Overall, we are doing what we can. Our ethos is to carry out all work and jobs to the best of our ability and we have a saying that has stood us well for over 100 years: Do not put off to tomorrow, what can be carried out today.

Our biggest challenge today is, like most farmers, the weather, as has been with my last 50 years in farming, but it concerns me that we are not receiving a fair share of the cake with poor farm gate prices. Hindsight is a marvellous thing, but I would not have changed my life from what I have done, it is still a happy life in the Countryside.

As I look back at my farming life, my proudest moment was when our 3 children were born. We have also taken part and won the Suffolk Agricultural Association farm Business competition for several years and I hope my future is to carry on farming for a few more years yet, and then hopefully pass the business over to the family.

Mike Porter