Lower House Farm

Laura and Matt are tenant farmers at Lower House Farm in Monmouthshire, where they care for a number of animals, including cattle, sheep, chickens, horses, goats and pigs. They applied for the mentoring opportunity to learn more about regenerative farming and reducing soy feed, and to help identify changes they could make to their own practice. On a personal level, they were also interested in the wider environmental picture.

What changes have they made so far?

• Removed soy feed from their cattle and pigs’ diets. This has reduced the protein content slightly, but does not seem to have impacted performance and growth rates so far. However, this is something they will continue to monitor. 
• Exploring growing up to 10 acres of an alternative feed mix to reduce their reliance on soy and palm-based feeds for pigs.  
• Trialled a new chicken feed containing organic soy bulked with wheat.
• Carried out a pumpkin growing trial with Farming Connect. This was herbicide free, so they did have some issues with weed control, but produced a good yield overall and the pumpkins sold well.
• They also trialled ‘pigs as ploughs’ on the pumpkin patch area over winter to help prepare the ground for spring planting.
• Applied for planning permission to open a farm shop.
• Planning a calendar of seasonal events in 2025 and encouraging more people to buy direct from the farm through the sale of hot food at events and meat from the farm.

Challenges & Successes

Being tenant farmers means that making long-term infrastructure changes is difficult, as there is less certainty about their future on the land. Furthermore, transitioning to regenerative practices can take time and an increased workload, so this lack of certainty has been a barrier when implementing changes. The cost of non-soy based feeds is also a limiting factor, as more nature-friendly alternatives are more than £5 per bag more costly than the cheaper soy and palm-based feeds. Another challenge is cash flow which limits the ability to buy feed in bulk, which would otherwise reduce the cost. 

To overcome these barriers Laura and Matt would like to try growing their own feed on the land, e.g. planting spring barley for forage animals, and in future, would like their cattle to be fed on pasture as much as possible. They are exploring diversifying their farm income through the sale of deforestation-free eggs and by holding on-farm events and activities, for example, for Spring on the Farm and Pumpkin Patch. They have also set up a veg patch and invited a local community group to grow produce on it and are exploring flower growing to sell under the name Lower House Flowers.