FARMING CASE STUDY: M GIBBONS and SONS, UPPER FARM

Julian Gibbons is one of two brothers involved in the family business, which is an arable farm called Upper Farm covering 500 hectares (ha), (around 1250 acres). They also farm a further 350ha (875acres) for a neighbouring landowner. Julian and his brother Andrew represent the third generation of farmers. In September 2006, the family celebrated the 40th anniversary of Julian’s father moving to Upper Farm. The farm has gradually increased in size over 40 years from its original 160ha.

Location: Bradley, Alresford, Hampshire, Southern England

Physical features:

• Relief: the farm is situated in the north-eastern part of Hampshire and the end of the Itchen river system. It is an area of highly wooded countryside, rolling fields and high hedges.
• Altitude: the land rises from 100m to 190m above sea level.
• Soil types: mineral soils varying from light silty loams to heavy silty clays. All contain flints in varying amounts.
• Average annual rainfall: 850mm.

Crops produced

Wheat is the largest crop (about 40 per cent), followed by malting barley (20 per cent). Julian and Andrew also grow oilseed rape and oats, and participate in environmental schemes, such as the UK government’s Entry Level Stewardship scheme.

UK farm assurance scheme

All the grain produced by the farm, including the malting barley, is either stored on the farm, or sent to a local central store. From there it will either go to maltsters who are part of the Assured UK Malt (AUKM) scheme, or for export. In order to deliver barley to the high standards laid down by the scheme, Julian participates in a UK farm assurance scheme called the Assured Combinable Crops Scheme (ACCS). This scheme covers every part of the growing process – seeds; pesticides and fertilisers; harvesting; storage; and transportation.

Land use

Allocation of land is as follows.

Labour

• The farm employs two family members full-time.
• There is one full-time general farm worker.
• Contractors are employed for hedge-cutting, limespreading and spreading of biosolids.
• Students are employed to help with harvest over July and August.

Machinery

The following major items have been purchased in the recent past.

Buildings

The farm has the following specialised buildings:

1. Grain store with drying facilities and storage for 2000 tonnes
2. General farm workshop, fertiliser stores and pesticide store.

Inputs

The farmers are members of Crop Advisors, an independent agronomy company, which also offers buying group facilities. All crop inputs go through the group to give the farmers the opportunity to get the best prices and terms. They also supply the farm with crop advice.

• Fertiliser: all the farm's fields are tested every four years to establish levels of residual fertiliser in the soil. The farm has increased the amount of nutrients it brings onto the farm from manures and other organic wastes. This has reduced its reliance on inorganic fertiliser. Julian is on the professional register of fertiliser advisors. The balance of crop need comes from purchased inorganic fertilisers. The total spend on fertilisers is £67,000.
• Pesticides: including fungicides and insecticides, the annual cost £53,300.
• Fuel: in the last year, the farm used £18,700 worth of diesel to power the tractors and dry the crops.

Outputs

Over 75% of all produce is sold through farmer-owned businesses. The farm produced:

Subsidies

Subsidies contributed approximately 30% of the farm's total income in 1996. This proportion has increased as grain prices have fallen. The rise in grain prices will see it fall as a percentage of total income.

The farming year

Seedbed cultivations Drilling oilseed rape, wheat and any Winter barley	Drilling wheat, oats Spraying Autumn-sown crops Starting to prepare ground for Spring-sown crops Drilling Winter beans (if grown)	Crop spraying Cultivating ground for spring crops Loading grain out
Crop spraying Finishing any cultivations Loading grain out	Training General farm maintenance Farm planning Loading grain out	Training General farm maintenance Drill Spring barley Loading grain out
Drill Spring barley Fertilising crops, finish fertilising malting barley Crop spraying Drill other Spring crops Rolling crops if necessary Loading grain out	Finish drilling of Spring crops Main month for fertilising wheat Last fertiliser applications to oilseed rape Spray wheats	Final fertiliser applications to wheat Peak month for crop spraying to wheat and barley Finishing loading grain out Grain store preparation
Visit trial sites Crop planning Grain store preparations	Final grain store preparations Harvest preparations Start harvest of oilseed rape, usually the last week of the month	Harvesting Field cultivations for autumn planting

Environment

Upper Farm has a large area of woodland, most of which is classified as semi-natural ancient woodland. Hampshire contains one of the country’s largest proportions of this important habitat, typically characterised by bluebells.

To build on this and our hedge and shelter belts, we have used environmental schemes to create a interlinking network of wildbird food strips for winter feed, pollen and nectar-rich strips for bumble bees and butterflies and grass margins. We are using bare patches created by the seed drill to provide nest sites for skylarks and other ground-nesting birds. Some field corners have been left to nature and we are already seeing recolonisation by woodland orchids.

On one of our sharefarmed farms, we have worked with the landowner, FWAG and the RSPB to develop a series of measures to encourage grey partridges, stone curlews and corn buntings, all of which nest on the farm. A mix of unsown cultivated margins to encourage native wild flowers, cultivated nesting plots, unharvested conservation margins, wildbird food plots and grass and pollen and nectar strips have been used. This should provide good nesting cover, plenty of insects to feed chicks and a plentiful overwinter supply of food.

Approximately 15% of the area of land is actively managed for wildlife.

Recent and current changes

The farm has expanded rapidly over the last eight years. To help with the workload and to reduce costs in the face of low grain prices achieved recently, the farm has moved to a minimum tillage system. This has reduced the time spent per hectare on crop establishment.

All the farms have entered the ELS scheme and one is in the HLS.

This has guaranteed income streams and rewards us for our land management.

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