The Family History

Aishe Barton Farm is situated near Silverton.  There are three main enterprises on the farm, which are:

• Arable Crops
• Pedigree Red Devon Beef Herd
• Commercial Red Devon Beef Herd

The farm was started by my parents in 1986 and I took it over in 1997 as I believed that the farm could be managed in family hands and so I became the farm manager in partnership with my parents.  The farm started with 26 hectares and is now 312 hectares ranging from the steep valley sides of the Exe to flat ground in the valley bottom. 

The Farmhouse History

The farmhouse itself dates back to about 1100, but there has been a farm on the site since Roman times.  The house is of solid masonry construction with a thatched roof.  Over the years there have been many changes to the structure of the house from a very simple building to the structure that you see today.  In recent times the farm had fallen into disrepair and now the family have restored the farmhouse so that it looks much as it would have in about 1550.  We are also only the seventh owners of the house since records began.

Physical Features

Land Use

There are three ways in which the land is used at the present:

• Arable Use
• Stock Rearing Use
• Wildlife Use

Please click on the links above for more information about the specific ways the land is used.

Labour (The Team)

The farm employs:

• one full time family member, me
• two full time members, Kelvin Milton and Jason Greenway
• one part time family member to do the accounts, Diane

Buildings

There are four main sections of the farm buildings:

• Aishe Barton is the old historic farmyard but with a new stock & machinery sheds built on the hill
• Coombe Farm that is a disused farmyard
• New Park Farm that is now the new stock yard
• Gilberts Barns which has been converted to our grain store

Aishe Barton’s main drawback is that the farmyard of traditional stone and cob construction has an access problem through Silverton village. The buildings were not suited to have tractors and handlers trying to place materials in them for storage.  Most of the new farm machinery was too large to come up the road that caused problems when we had large deliveries of fertiliser or seed. The site is also very confined in nature.

Therefore in 2005 we built a new centre for our machinery on the hill above.  There was also a building for cattle which was built in 1956 called Eddies Barn and housed all of the sheep during the winter months.  By 2008 this was getting a bit crowded so in 2009 we built another shed, Kelvins Barn, to house our increasing herd.  In 2013 we extended Eddies Barn by covering the yard.

Coombe Farm has only two very dilapidated barns with very limited road access.  The track that leads to them is very narrow in places and has sharp corners and weak banks, which limits its use. Also due to its proximity with a stream it was also flooding regularly.  However we are trying to restore these barns for future use using old materials.

In 2009 we were able to purchase another farm in Silverton called New Park Farm, which has become the home to our commercial beef enterprise.  The sheds and stockyard have been be modified and this is where the majority of the cattle are to be over wintered and where they give birth to the young.  In 2011 we covered the old silage clamp to turn this into a roaming area for the cattle under a Catchment Sensitive Grant.

Gilberts Barns has recently been converted from stock sheds to our new centralised crop storage area and a new weighbridge will help us work out our cropping yields from the fields.

With the range of buildings there is the possibility for the farm to have some diversification into other fields.

Inputs

Most of the inputs for the farm would be found on any farm but here the quantities are much smaller.  Our usual purchases are:

• Cow muck and composted materials from the farm
• Fertilisers such as Nitrogen, Potassium and Phosphates
• Herbicides
• Fungicides
• Fuel
• Seed

We do not use insecticides as a rule but let the arable margins around the cropped fields support natural predators to control the insects.

Using small amounts of chemicals is good not only for our cash flow, as chemicals are expensive, but also helps the environment.  We also use all the muck from the animals and we then spread that onto our fields.

Outputs

Most of the farm’s crops are sold either under contact or to local farmers.  In 1999 we had the best year ever for our wheat production with over 320 tonnes sold. 1999 was also the best year for yields with 3.75 tonnes per acre being produced.  Usually the figure is about 2.8 tonnes.

However, in 2013 barley yields went to 4.08 tonnes to the acre and wheat yields went to 4.15 tonnes, which with other crops made it our best yeilding year ever.

Diversification Enterprises

So far the following have been tried with varying degrees of success:

1. Harvesting Walnuts that were planted in one of our fields several years ago.
2. Letting buildings to companies outside farming.
3. Letting land to other farmers.
4. Selling wood chips as a gardening material is now going to be started as there will be thinning of our existing woodlands.  It will also provide a source of revenue from selling the logs.
5. Manufacturing organic compost is being investigated at present.
6. Letting residential property.
7. Holiday Lettings.
8. Installation of a wind turbine.
9. Installation of solar panels at New Park on the barn roofs.

Public Access

The farm has three main footpaths that cross the fields.  In one place, due to proximity of dogs to livestock, the footpath was separated from the field, to safe guard animals and walkers.  Educational access is also used to encourage children to see what farmers do and how the food they eat is produced. We also place information boards so that people can see what we are growing in the fields.