Challacombe Farm, near to Postbridge and the Bronze Age hut circles at Grimspound, is a Duchy of Cornwall farm, run by tenant farmers Mark Owen and Naomi Oakley. After featuring a fascinating insight into their low impact farming practices in our collaborative film with Clapham Film Unit, Dartmoor Calling, we were delighted to have the chance to visit the farm and find out more.
Naomi and Mark produce organic, grass fed lamb and beef and were the first ‘certified regenerative farm by Animal Welfare Approved. During our visit we walked through a series of species rich hay meadows and saw the small, hardy Shetland x Icelandic sheep grazing with their lambs. The job of these sheep is to help manage the various habitats found at the farm, from cropping grass to maintain short grassland habitat for waxcaps, to keeping the on-site archaeology clear of gorse and scrub. To minimise their carbon footprint, they are grass fed for their whole lives and their diet is never supplemented with cereal. The livestock numbers on the farm are strictly determined by the capacity of the land to sustain them, with all supplementary winter hay being harvested from the farm’s hay meadows in the summer. The only feed supplement to be bought in is a mineral lick, as some vital minerals are not found readily in the soil.
The hay meadows at Challacombe are part of an ongoing effort to boost biodiversity. During our walk we identified yellow rattle, plantain and lesser hogweed, all of which are important components to a diverse meadow, and palatable to animals as part of a mixed grass and herb diet. Yellow rattle is an annual plant that thrives in grasslands, living semi-parasitically by feeding of the nutrients in the roots of grasses around it. It was once seen by farmers as an indicator of poor grassland, but it is now an important plant for many conservationists, as its method of extracting nutrients helps to slow down the growth of highly competitive grasses, giving more delicate varieties a chance and helping to turn improved grassland back into meadow. Naomi shared her method of encouraging the spread of yellow rattle between their meadows: they take a very short cut and then let the hay dry until any seeds fall out onto the soil. After gathering this hay, green hay from a nearby, species rich meadow is then spread over the almost bare ground. This job is often done by visiting groups of children, who take great delight in throwing the cuttings everywhere across the field, doing a fantastic job of spreading hundreds of seeds from welcome meadow species.
Naomi has an inspiring ability to think longer term. Acknowledging that she is one of a long line of many different custodians of Challacombe, she is actively working to leave the farm in a healthier state, transforming it into a place which welcomes campers, walkers, school groups, otters, hunting hobbies and other wildlife. She’s open to change being for the better, and to illustrate this she showed us an amazing carved granite drinking trough, which she had thought was just a boulder, until she accidentally dislodged it with the tractor.
When faced with the problem of animal waste contaminating the watercourses on her farm, she arrived at a less invasive solution and avoided having to build a bulky unnatural concrete silt trap on her land. Despite the pollution not coming from her animals, but rather from animals upstream, she stepped up to her hydrological responsibility and began to ask how else the water could be filtered. After taking advice, she settled on building an s-shaped pond, which holds the water, before filtering it through the adjacent bog and then allowing it to flow on slowly to rejoin the stream. This solution requires minimal yearly maintenance, just one day spent digging up silt and building the banks by machine, and the pond has become a popular habitat for insects and invertebrates. It also avoids the danger of wildlife falling into a steep sided manmade silt trap, and drowning.
Challacombe Farm is one of the farms that make up the Central Dartmoor Farming Cluster, which has a focus on collaboration and regenerative farming. Responding to the impact of climate change, which means hotter, drier summers and warmer, wetter winters on Dartmoor, the cluster are establishing nature recovery areas and adopting natural flood management techniques. One of these techniques is encouraging healthy, peat forming bog, which both locks away carbon and helps prevents flash flooding downstream. Naomi took us down to see the edge of her bog, which is populated by goat willow and glorious, delicate marsh marigold. She told us about a ready-made otter holt which she was offered for free, and accepted, as it came with high-tech wildlife camera. It was a matter of days before an otter had moved in and she now has fantastic footage of it travelling and hunting up and down the stream.
Close to the farmhouse, is a pond which used to be the farm dump. Naomi worked with local authorities to have the old waste in it removed, as it included pesticides and chemicals in degrading metal tins. Once the collection of the waste was agreed, she went a step further and organised a ‘chemical amnesty’ for all local farmers, giving her neighbours in the community a chance to safely dispose of products which may otherwise have ended up contaminating the ground or watercourses. Now there is a chunky granite bench overlooking the water, offering the perfect rest stop for people walking the public rights of way that cross the farm. Dragonflies are abundant above the water and bird watchers regularly visit to watch the swallows hunting above the bordering fields. A gentleman was getting comfortable with his camp chair and binoculars as we walked past.
As well as the public rights of way, most of the land at Challacombe Farm is open access. This means that walkers are invited to spend time exploring further, sit by the meandering stream and use the open fields for a picnic. Naomi has a welcoming attitude and is keen for people to ‘get on my land’.
We left Challacombe feeling revitalised and inspired. Naomi and Mark are wonderful custodians of their section of Dartmoor, lovingly caring for the land and constantly asking themselves how they can support nature best. Their organic farming practices are both regenerative and profitable, providing high quality organic meat for the local community. Through their collaborative work as part of the Dartmoor Farming Cluster, they are showcasing successful low-impact faming solutions to others, setting an example that other farmers are able to follow. They’re also champions of access, encouraging people to build relationships with the landscape and find their own special places that they want to return to again and again. As we left, Naomi called us over to a crevice in the wall near the ruined Medieval village, which sits close to the farmhouse. She pointed out a nest of rounded crystals in the crevice. She told us that these small gifts keep appearing, as if people want to leave some sort of thanks, offering a gift back to nature to recognise the profound connection they’ve made.
Helen Bruce, DPA Comms Officer