Oils
Rapeseed Oil
Chili Oil
Dressings
Blackberry Vinaigrette
Classic Vinaigrette
Balsamic Dressing
Honey & Mustard
Ultimate Chilli DressingWhilst not a dairy farmer I have plenty of friends around the country who are; sadly the numbers are decreasing, at around 10 leaving the industry every week. The UK currently has around 14,000 dairy farmers producing 80% of Britain’s milk and dairy products.
As with decreasing oil prices, one can’t help but notice milk prices are also in free fall on supermarket shelves; at around 43p per litre it is cheaper than bottled water and less than half the price of cola. The unsustainable prices are hitting the headlines with all sorts of people being blamed, not least the supermarkets for forcing farmers out of business. However, while I have genuine sympathy for farmers having to sell their milk for less than the cost of production, it is too simplistic just to blame supermarket price wars.
As with many industries in a free market, global society, the trend of less UK dairy farmers will continue, whilst the size of those remaining will increase. Where a few years ago the average dairy herd was around 80 cows, they are now two or three times that size, becoming more efficient and producing more milk. Long term there is a huge growing demand for milk and dairy products globally, however at the moment this has dropped off. The slowing Chinese economy means they are consuming less milk, including British produced milk powder; the situation being so bad that Chinese dairy farmers are pouring milk down the drains and culling cattle. Secondly due to economic sanctions against Russia, the Russians are currently not buying any French cheeses.
Additionally, because of warm wet weather in the UK and Ireland over the last few months, grass has grown well and the cows have produced plenty of milk, all at a time when there simply isn’t the demand. Basically the situation for dairy farmers around the world is going to get worse before it improves.
Everyone from farmers, processors, retailers and politicians are trying to workout a way forward. Unlike the price of oil going down (and let’s face it, I like paying £10 less every time I fill the car up), in an industry controlled by multinational companies who can manipulate the price and politics. Dairy farmers are small businesses, at the mercy of the market and therefore a balance has to be struck between nurturing an efficient British dairy sector, whilst ensuring the industry doesn’t disappear completely, which would be catastrophic on all levels, especially when demand for milk increases if we can’t produce it here in our own country.
We should relish quality milk produced in Britain. Milk is packed full of goodness with dozens of proteins; vitamins; minerals; carbohydrates and healthy fats. Full fat milk (3.5%) has less than a third of the fat content of a ‘low fat’ chicken diner (11%). Also at less than half the price of cola and full of calcium rather than sugar, it is better for your teeth too. Go and buy an extra pint today, great value for a fantastic product!
Sometimes I just have to spend a few undisturbed days in the office with my head buried in spreadsheets trying to do some strategy planning for the future of the business. As well as being vitally important, I do enjoy trying to work out the best way for all the pieces of the jigsaw to fit together.
Firstly I will be updating my whole farm Environmental Policy. This document is all about what we stand for and looks at everything from water resources and wildlife, to staff and the machinery choices we make on the farm. It is a true record of where we are as a business, as well as putting some targets for the following year. I update this annually, following discussions of what our ambitions are for the year.
Then there are the cash flow forecasts that need completing for this year and next, a vital tool to help give an indication of where and when the money is going to come from and what we will have left to invest. Farming, like any other business, does not have a crystal ball, particularly when it comes to predicting future weather and commodity trends, but it does give me an indication to start planning around.
Business planning is a combination of strategy, mixed with plenty of compromise, a bit of aspiration and a realisation that not everything can be done at once. For example over the last couple of years the farm has had to cut back its shopping list drastically due to a poor harvest two years ago. The tractor we recently bought, I wanted last year, but couldn’t afford. Now I am looking at the investments required for the next two years and trying to prioritise those, whilst trying to keep the business agile.
Our fourteen-year-old combine harvester is a crucial piece of machinery. A wheel recently departed from the rest of the machine on the road and the combine ended up in the ditch. Thankfully no serious damaged was done to people or machine, however, this brings home the fact that we need to look at replacing this over the next couple of years and at around half a million pounds for a new one, I will be looking for another used machine. For this year, one of the things near the top of the list is a solar power system to go on the oil factory roof. This ticks many boxes both financially and environmentally, so as long as I can get the figures to work, it should become a reality over the next few months.
Farming Diary
From LEAF Demonstration Farmer Duncan Farrington
10 Years & Exclusive Preview
Farmer Duncan Farrington launched Farrington’s Mellow Yellow cold pressed rapeseed oil in 2005. Produced on the Farrington’s family farm in Northamptonshire, we have since expanded our award-winning range to include dressings and mayonnaise. However, it was two years before its launch in 2003 that Duncan decided to become a LEAF Demonstration Farm and planted rapeseed crops under the LEAF Marque standard. This decision to grow and produce his brand of cold pressed rapeseed oil to the highest environmental standards raised the bar of British produced culinary oils as he led the growth of the sector within the UK and numerous awards followed.
Duncan started selling bottles of Mellow Yellow cold pressed rapeseed oil to independent retailers from the boot of his car. Since then he has seen sales of Mellow Yellow grow as consumers switch to using the British product over other culinary oils. Duncan Farrington, said, “We are still a small farm producer. Compared to the olive oil and sunflower oil market in the UK we generate only a fraction of sales but we have focused on quality and grown sustainably. We will continue to produce a high-quality product that is accessible to everyone, from home cooks to the leading chefs in the world”.
Leading chefs to discover Farrington’s early on included Jamie Oliver and Nigella Lawson. Duncan introduced himself to Jamie at a trade show in 2006, and since then has produced one of Jamie’s brands of rapeseed oil as well as being on the menu at his Union Jacks restaurant. Nigella was an early fan too, naming Farrington’s Mellow Yellow as her rapeseed oil of choice in her book Kitchen. More recently, we were chosen by Michel Roux Jr’s Cookery School to become a partner. The school contacted Farrington’s because their chefs have been using the oil since the school opened in 2013.
We received our first Gold Taste award for the oil in 2006, with the latest Gold Star awarded to our flagship cold pressed rapeseed oil in 2014. Duncan’s wife Eli Farrington shares his passion and with her meticulous approach, has produced our dressings and mayonnaise recipes, again picking up many awards. Continuing to strive for quality, the range is one of the few widely available that is completely free from additives and is Vegetarian Society Accredited and Coeliac UK Approved.
A key part of the rebrand involved customer research. We asked customers what they like about the Mellow Yellow cold pressed rapeseed oil and what’s important to them when selecting a culinary oil. Based on this research, we have simplified the information on the front, retaining the important elements, particularly the British flag as provenance is one of the most important factors for shoppers.
10 years of cold pressed rapeseed oil. From a leading actress and a butcher to Michelin star chefs and business leaders; all part of this modern farmer’s story.
Celebrating 10 years, Farmer Duncan Farrington thanks the people who supported his British culinary oil with the first 10, new look bottles off the production line.
Farrington’s Mellow Yellow cold pressed rapeseed oil celebrates its 10th anniversary with a redesign and fresh look. The success of this British brand of culinary oil has been achieved through lots of hard work, as well as support from a wide variety of people. Duncan started selling bottles of Mellow Yellow cold pressed rapeseed oil to independent retailers from the boot of his car in 2005, including his first stop at the local butcher, H Johnson & Sons in Thrapston. Mr. Johnson agreed to give it a try on a sale or return basis and within a fortnight had placed his second order having completely sold out.
In 2003 Duncan became a LEAF Demonstration Farmer, as part of a network of farmers who talk to the public about their environmentally friendly farming practices. Actress Tamsin Greig launched the Farrington family farm as a demonstration farm. Tamsin was playing Debbie Aldridge in the Archers at the time, where the character had just completed her LEAF audit on the show. Duncan invited Tamsin and her family to the farm where she planted an owl box to mark the occasion. Later with LEAF Marque accreditation for his rapeseed, Duncan began producing Farrington’s Mellow Yellow rapeseed oil to the highest environmental standards and raised the bar of British produced culinary oils.
Cold pressed rapeseed oil continues to grow in popularity and is much loved by chefs and home cooks alike, who appreciate its culinary and health properties. Leading chefs to discover Farrington’s early on included Jamie Oliver and Nigella Lawson. Duncan introduced himself to Jamie at a consumer show in 2006, and since then has produced one of Jamie’s brands of rapeseed oil as well as being on the menu at his Union Jacks restaurant. Nigella was an early fan too, naming Farrington’s Mellow Yellow as her rapeseed oil of choice in her book ‘Kitchen’. More recently, the company was chosen by Michel Roux Jr’s Cookery School to become a partner. The school contacted Farrington’s because their chefs have been using the oil since the school opened in 2013.
Duncan also acknowledges other people who support British agriculture and who have, in one way or another, been advocates and mentors. Duncan says, “Our success has been achieved not only with a great product but also through working with great people who believed in what I was trying to achieve right from the start. From the food writers and independent shops to the national retailers and Michelin-starred chefs, all of whom I’ve enjoyed working with and who have supported us on our journey from humble beginnings”.
The ten people to receive bottles of Farrington’s Mellow Yellow cold pressed rapeseed oil are Judith Batchelar, Graham Cassie, Sheila Dillon, Tamsin Greig, Adam Gray, Nigel Johnson, Nigella Lawson, James Martin, Jamie Oliver and Michel Roux Jr.
Thank you for 10 years of cold pressed rapeseed oil, here’s to 10 more!
Whilst putting branches on a bonfire is admittedly very different to talking to customers in a farm shop about the virtues of using Mellow Yellow to cook their roast potatoes in. They both make me feel that winter is here, getting one in a festive mood ready for Christmas. It’s a great time of year. It is also a great example of the diversity of jobs involved on a modern farm, and whilst we may not be masters of them all, we certainly have to be a Jack of all trades. For it to really work, though, you do need a great team of different skills which we have at Bottom Farm.
With the shortening of the days, winter routine on the farm is well underway. It is the time of year when trees and hedges are pruned or planted, ditches are cleaned and general maintenance takes place using a variety of men and machines. There is nothing better than a cold damp day, removing overgrown and falling braches from trees, sawing some of the wood into logs for the home fire and making a bonfire in the field for the rest. I love this work as it gives a real satisfaction of a hard day’s work done, whilst carrying out an important conservation operation, encouraging healthy hedges and copses.
These days I don’t get to do as much of the actual conservation work as I would like and have to delegate the role to the guys on the farm. Whilst my neighbouring farmers use this time of year as a chance for some good old fashioned exercise, before finishing early for a warm bath once the sun goes down. I turn my attention to selling our Farrington’s Mellow Yellow rapeseed oil brand, in the busy run up to Christmas.
November and December is a very busy time for Farrington Oils. In the factory, the presses run flat out producing oil, whilst the guys just as busy putting it into bottles ready for the shops. Additionally, we attend major food shows in London and Birmingham, as well as spending winter evenings going around our customers in the County and further a field supporting them in their festive evenings, where people come along to taste (and hopefully buy) many of the delicious foods on the show.
As September draws to a close, we are in the final stages of the busy workload. Harvest seems a distant memory, the rapeseed is all planted and growing well, although a little rain wouldn’t go a miss; now it is just the wheat that needs planting. So the question is to plant wheat or not to plant wheat?
Like many of the jobs on an arable farm, I don’t have the luxury of a crystal ball to see what the weather is going to do over the next few weeks. September has to date been the driest on record. The lack of rain has not allowed much blackgrass and other weed seeds to germinate and grow, which ideally I would like to have a chance to kill off with a weed killer before we start planting wheat. If we drill too early, these weed seeds will germinate at the same time as the crop and cause problems for the next season. If we wait too long and the weather breaks, we may struggle to get the crops into good soil conditions, or at all. The plan is to encourage the weeds to grow quickly by giving the soil a gentle rake, kill off the weeds before planting some fields whilst the conditions are favourable, then wait as long as I dare before planting the remainder. In other words, I’m hedging my bets in trying to make the right decision.
I read recently that Richard Branson has given up eating beef because of his concerns over greenhouse gas emissions produced by cattle. He is, of course, correct – cows produce methane (from flatulence), however, Mr. Branson’s concerns are more about intensively produced beef in South America where cattle are raised in feed lots consuming huge resources to produce beef for North America. It is a completely different story in Britain and other similar countries, where beef is reared less intensively. Whilst it is true cows do flatualte because they are ruminant animals, meaning they eat grass, something we humans are not able to do. If we all stopped eating beef, what would happen to our green and pleasant land? Perhaps we could plough it all up to grow more crops to feed a vegetarian world, but there again that would cause other environmental issues, including the emission of greenhouse gases.
Sometimes, out of good intensions and trying to make the right decision, people can get a little side tracked without seeing the bigger picture. Besides, did I mention that air travel is a huge cause of greenhouse gas emissions? What would Mr. Branson say about that?
Harvest is almost complete and it has been an excellent one here at Bottom Farm.
That’s in stark contrast to the disastrous one we had last year. The 2013 harvest was the worst in my farming career, whereas 2014 will be remembered as one of the best. The rapeseed yielded very well, as did the wheat; and what’s more, we managed to get most of it harvested in good conditions, with some lovely weather.
We have just finished the spring barley, which was not so good, leaving one field of spring beans and one of spring wheat to gather. No sooner has the last crop been safely gathered in than we are back on the land planting next year’s crops, with the rapeseed already safely in the ground. The cycle continues from one year to the next.
It is very much a case of working day and night, sometimes not knowing which priority to do first before the weather breaks, as it inevitably does at some stage. I sit writing this feeling rather weary as the rain falls, giving us all a day’s well-earned rest.
In between work on the farm, I have also fitted in a weekend manning our stand at Carfest in Hampshire, promoting our rapeseed oil to festival goers. It was great to see a few Northamptonshire visitors at the show.
On marketing of a different kind, while 2014 has been an excellent year for growing crops, the same can’t be said for selling them, as currently prices for crops are about 35 per cent lower than last year. We produce global commodities and because of this, we are very much at the mercy of global markets.
When President Putin decided to walk into Crimea back in the spring, wheat prices peaked as the world worried what might happen in a major wheat-growing area.
However, now the markets have decided things are not so bad after all (for crops rather than Ukrainians), while countries are having very good harvests around the world, so there is no current pressure on supplies of food, hence prices have plummeted.
Luckily I sold a small amount of our wheat forward at the high price but, as with all such decisions, one never knows what the right thing to do is, while I haven’t yet mastered the art of trading with hindsight.
Therefore, in summary, I have had a bigger crop than hoped, which is worth less than hoped, so it probably all works out about even. If anyone would like some excellent quality wheat over the next few months, I may be able to supply some – if the price is right of course!
Over the years I have had bird surveys carried out on the farm. Primarily because I find this sort of thing interesting and whilst I am no bird expert (although I have learned a lot in the last few years), I do like to know what we have and what we can do to improve the likely hood of getting more species on the farm. Local conservation expert, Dr. Mark Avery has been surveying the birds at Bottom Farm since 2003. Back then he got very excited when he found Turtle Doves on the farm, which came back each year to nest. Unfortunately, in recent years he thought they had disappeared, which is the case in much of the UK. However, I was delighted recently when I thought I had spotted them here again, the turtle doves return. An excited call to Mark, who came out and confirmed, even more excitedly, that I was right! They’re back. This is great news, especially so as it was waste seeds I scatter around the farm from Farrington Oils, that they were feeding on.
Mark has just launched a new book, ‘A Message from Martha’, which talks about the sad demise of the last carrier pigeon in America, 100 years ago and the social history around the subject. It also draws parallels with the plight of the Turtle Dove today in the UK, mentioning our farm as part of the message. I haven’t read the copy kindly given to me yet, due to harvest keeping me busy at the moment, but am looking forward to soon. Until then it looks great on the coffee table, with the cover designed by local artist, Carry Akroyd.
Harvest is in full swing, with the rapeseed nearly gathered in, giving very pleasing results following a near perfect growing season. Marvin is taking over from Father as the main combine driver this year, for which he has some big boots to fill. After over forty years experience driving combine harvesters, there is not much my Father doesn’t know and to let a new man lose on our beloved machine can’t be easy, however, Father seems reasonably relaxed, showing Marvin the finer points to help make him into an experienced operator in time.
Once we have finished the rapeseed, there will be a few days catching up on other jobs around the farm in readiness for the main wheat harvest to start in August. This is when the real fun starts and it all gets a bit hectic, so preparation is key.
Farming Diary
From LEAF Demonstration Farmer Duncan Farrington
Wonderful Weather, Quality Wheat
Thank-you to all of you who came along to Open Farm Sunday last month, we had over 500 people visit Bottom Farm to get taste of life on a modern family farm. Many people were very complimentary of the day and all the different experiences they enjoyed, a day that was a real team effort with nearly 40 family, friends and neighbours volunteering their time helping make the day such a great success with wonderful weather.
This year we will start harvesting the rapeseed around 18th July, a full week earlier than our average start date and nearly two weeks earlier than last year. Thanks to the warm season we have had, with rain at the right time and plenty of sunshine to match, the crops have grown and matured well. Let’s just hope the favourable weather keeps up over the next couple of months to really make 2014 a great year for crops, following the disastrous year of 2013. There is a theory that the weather patterns around the few days of the change of each season, dictates the weather for the next coming season. This year for the summer solstice on 21st June, the weather was wonderful, so if you believe the theory, we are in for a good summer.
Some of the wheat we grow is destined to make flour for bread in Sainsbury’s. To make good quality bread, the flour requires a high protein quality. Protein quality in the grains of wheat is affected by the weather and the amount of Nitrogen available to the crop. I am involved in a trial to predict the eventual flour quality, from the crop growing in the field. By doing this I can assess whether or not the crop needs extra Nitrogen fertiliser to ensure the required protein quality. I have been around our fields with a pair of secateurs in hand, cutting quadrant samples of wheat to send off to a laboratory, where it is analysed to predict the final protein quality. I find this approach to agriculture and the careful use of valuable resources fascinating, as well as being a great opportunity for me to learn and fine tune our best practices. The results have shown with a degree of certainty that we need to apply a little more fertiliser this year to ensure the final quality of bread in your local supermarket is top quality.
Only a few days to go until Open Farm Sunday on 8th June. Marvin and Father have recently got the combine harvester out of the shed, to service and clean it for the occasion. So far they have found a resident mouse which rather liked destroying the driver’s seat, a couple of bearings and a suspect drive belt that need changing. This is all standard stuff.
June is a month of preparation and a time to plan and take stock of the season so far. As well as getting ready for Farm Sunday, we are also ensuring everything from grain stores, to trailers, tractors and so on are cleaned, serviced and ready to go when harvest starts at the end of July. On the crop front, things are looking pretty good. The rapeseed is looking very well with the warm weather, the sun, and rain, making ideal conditions for the crop to grow. The wheat also is looking great in some fields, whilst the dreaded ‘Black grass’ is rearing its ugly head in other fields.
The black grass is one subject that many arable farmers will spend hours discussing. It is a grass weed that thrives in our moist fertile soils. However, it is extremely competitive and can reduce crops yields by over 60% in bad cases. Over the last decade, the weed has steadily and stealthily become a major issue for UK agriculture. Pre-1993 farmers were allowed to burn crop stubbles as a great way of cleaning up weed seeds. This however also killed many other things, including insects and small creatures. Following the stubble burning ban, farmers have relied on herbicides to control black-grass, but over the years it has become resistant and now we have to look at a combined assault on the weed using chemistry, physics, and biology; with herbicides, crop rotations, cultivation techniques, cover crops and so on. So far we are at best holding the status quo and in time I hope we will start winning.
Recently, friend and expert ornithologist, Dr. Mark Avery did one of his bird surveys on our farm. I didn’t see him on this occasion, as it was early one Saturday morning. He recorded 29 species of birds, including 7 on the Red List. I can add Lapwing and Grey Partridge, which he didn’t spot that morning. But never the less, we were delighted to hear such a range of birds in one couple of hour visit. As well as growing food for humans, we are also providing food and habitat for our feathery friends.