On a Saturday in late July members, friends and family of Greener Fram joined others on a visit to Wakelyns Farm, where Martin Wolfe described his method of Agroforestry, built up since he and his wife purchased the farm in 1992.
He began by describing the current commercial production of wheat where in one field “on land owned by a neighbouring farmer” there may be up to half a million plants genetically identical. The high production tonnage per hectare is achieved through the application of 39 chemicals over 13 visits by machinery. The cost of this is about 70-80% of the yield.
At Wakelyns Farm crops are grown in 12metre-wide alleys running perpendicular to the prevailing wind with 2metre strips either side for trees. This creates in a milder microclimate in which crops grow without the application of chemicals. The trees provide shade and shelter as well as nutrients for the crops and changing rates of transpiration. The under-story around the trees is untouched although ploughing is important for weed control and root pruning along the alleys. We were shown an alley in which several different blight-resistant varieties of potato were grown, thus reducing the risk of losing the entire crop in the event of disease. In some parts of the farm coppicing of trees such as Hazel and Willow takes place while other hard woods are allowed to mature.
The all- important theme of diversity has created a woodland edge, encouraging a great variety of species of bees, butterflies and birds: a recent RSPB survey recorded 43 species of bird.
With the continued themes of climate change and resource depletion weekly in the news we could do well to think as consumers and producers of food of our dependence on ‘cheap’ oil. A visit to Wakelyns farm is a wake up call to all of us.
David and Sue Greenacre
