Meet Six Inches of Soil Principal Ben Thomas
Ben and his fiancée Claudi at their upland farm Treveddoe in Cornwall
Over the next few weeks we’ll be introducing you to our film’s three principal characters, who are all new entrant farmers - Anna Jackson, Adrienne Gordon and Ben Thomas. Here’s Ben’s story…
What brought you to farming/growing?
I grew up ‘helping’ Dad to feed the cows and being a co-pilot during harvest. Growing up working outside in lovely summer weather definitely inspired a love for farming. From there, when I was old enough to be of help, I started handling cattle and driving tractors. This set-in stone that all I wanted to do was work outdoors with cows!
Can you tell us about the land you work?
My fiancée Claudi and I live on a beautiful upland farm called Treveddoe, on the edge of Bodmin moor. We moved here in January 2022, to start developing a regenerative system on the land. It’s 75 acres of permanent pasture. It’s already quite diverse in terms of species, but we’re aiming to build on that pasture diversity by using mob grazing all year round, with our Belted Galloways and Red Ruby Devons. We have baseline data for soil, plants and other species like birds. We want to produce nutrient dense food whilst still delivering for nature but using regenerative techniques, and farming to organic principles. I also manage a small farm and a herd of Pedigree Belted Galloways that graze across 600ha of Goss Moor NNR land.
Why did you choose to take part in the film?
I believe that regenerative farming isn’t a niche, and it can feed the public, when it includes pasture-based livestock production, which is my speciality. So much land is managed un-productively whilst being conventional. With good grazing management I’m confident I can grow comparative levels of forage, whilst achieving respectable growth rates, which are the same as most grass based conventional farmers, if not better. From this I also want farming to be paying me a respectable income. Being part of the film is my way of helping get this message out there, to create a brighter future for farming, for myself and future generations.
What does nature friendly farming mean to you?
NFF to me means that I’m farming my area of land to optimise production, not maximise it. For instance, if I cut for hay I’ll leave field corners, to leave a bit of habitat for nature. It’s inefficient to cut every square foot into a corner. Another example would be that we’re going to keep our cattle outside year-round, using mob grazing. This means we need to build higher covers of pasture all summer, so when the winter comes there is a stockpile for the cattle to eat. This method creates a wedge of different lengths of pasture, which is great for all manner of insects and mammals. We’ll have slightly less cattle on the farm, than if we were using fertiliser, housing cattle and making silage, but our costs will be reduced. We’ll be doing all of this whilst at the same time, improving the health of the soils and pasture. Optimising production is nature friendly farming in my eyes.
Follow Ben on Instagram @treveddoe_regen
