Summerley Hall Fruit Farm

We farm approximately 108 acres in total, the farm is all down to permanent pasture and we have just over 16 acres of woodland, which is split approximately 50/50 between old established natural woodland and a new area of trees planted in 2008.

In terms of stocking we have a small suckler herd of approximately 20 adult cows, plus a bull and a few replacements. These are calved in the spring and the calves are currently sold the following spring as yearlings. The herd is made up of pure bred Simmental cattle, some of whom are pedigree registered. We also have several domestic horses and ponies. We have owned the bulk of the farm since the late 1980's when it was acquired by my father as a "pick your own" fruit farm, hence the name. But this activity was discontinued well over 20 years ago. One 20 acre field is let from a large landowning family and has been on the same tenancy agreement since 1997.

We do not use any chemical fertilisers or sprays on the farm and have not done for well over 15 years. Apart from in one field on which we used to grow spring barley, but this was seeded down to grass over 6 years ago. There are almost 4km of hedgerows on the farm, most of which are very large 3m+ high and similar width. These are all old hedgerows that have existed for very, many years, although they have been allowed to grow out much more in the last 10 - 15 years or so, since we entered the farm into stewardship.