New farm tenants set for ambitious conversion...
A CONVENTIONAL arable farm at Normanton on Soar is undergoing conversion to an organic mixed beef, sheep and arable farm, having recently been let to ambitious new tenants on a 25-year farm business tenancy.
Cedars Farm, which forms part of Loughborough’s historic Paget Estate, is a 287-acre holding on the Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire border. The farm has been let, through Loughborough land agency Mather Jamie by the estate’s owner, Joanna HerbertStepney, to Oliver and Charlotte Johnson, who had previously operated a lamb and beef farm on a Warwickshire County Council smallholding.
The couple were keen to branch into organic farming and had been on the lookout for a larger acreage to realise their ambition.
They said minds were made up on Cedars Farm on the viewing day, when they met Miss Herbert-Stepney alongside Mather
Jamie’s associate director, Amy Biddell.
“Both Joanna and Amy were so helpful and down-to-earth that it decided everything for us,” said Oliver Johnson.
“It’s great to see that they are personally in favour of organic farming and committed to moving with the times – healthier ways of farming are the way forward.
Cedars Farm boasts a beautiful, Georgian three-storey farmhouse comprising eight bedrooms, as well as nine additional farm buildings ranging from traditional red brick structures to barns and a grain store.
Joanna Herbert-Stepney is herself a passionate advocate of organic farming and a longstanding supporter of the Soil Association.
She said: “I believe that organic farming works with the countryside, with the emphasis on boosting life, rather than on killing it.
“Life depends on healthy soil, full of millions of healthy, thriving, living organisms that digest organic matter, which Oliver and Charlotte will need to nurture – along with their animals – and keep in balance, whilst making a living too! I wish them all the luck in the world.
“Martin Ward and Amy Biddell at Mather Jamie have supported me wonderfully for over 34 years and now over half our farms are lovely, organic countryside.”
Amy Biddell added: “We received a lot of interest in Cedars Farm and it was great to see such a high level of young farmers looking to convert to organic and take a step up the farming ladder to a larger holding.
“Oliver and Charlotte were extremely enthusiastic about making the move from pasture-fed to organic farming and their ideas for Cedars Farm were interesting and forward thinking.
“After visiting them at their previous small holding and seeing their hard work and passion for their farming business, we had no doubt that they would be the ideal tenants for Cedars Farm.
“It’s wonderful to welcome them onto the Paget Estate and we wish them well in their new farming venture.”