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Farmer Stories

Jack Cockburn - How agroforestry can bring major benefits

Wales
Case Study
Organic
agroforestry
mob grazing

All imagery: Joanne Coates © for the Nature Friendly Farming Network

For Jack Cockburn, running a successful organic farm in Ceredigion, West Wales, centres on maximising the natural assets of the landscape, adopting innovative management approaches and connecting with the public to improve awareness of where quality food comes from.

Born in the West Midlands, Jack initially became interested in environmental issues, including organic food and farming, while studying at Leeds University. A spell in the press office at the Soil Association furthered his interest before the crucial step came when his dad bought the farm he currently runs.

The family didn’t originally intend to farm at Treberfedd but instead used it as holiday accommodation for foster families and a staff training venue for another business. Jack took up a role managing the site and then decided he wanted to use the land as well as the buildings.

My focus has always been on finding a way of bringing together people, nature, biodiversity, food production and making a living. It’s challenging, but it’s rewarding, and it’s never dull.

Jack Cockburn

He admits that when he started, the farm, which had previously been used intensively for dairy, wasn't the most nature-friendly. “There was a lot of detritus: plastic, scrap metal, tyres. The milk price during the 1990s had been so poor there hadn’t been an investment in gates and fences. It was a monoculture of ryegrass, and a lot of drains had been put in, and there were dock weeds growing absolutely everywhere from the slurry that had been over-applied,” Jack remembers.

Jack raised grants for planting 14,000 trees and created signposted walks for the holiday and training visitors, many of whom had little experience of the countryside, to enjoy. He was able to start restoring hedgerows through a Welsh government agri-environment scheme and, before launching into farming, took time to observe the land and see what was growing and living there.

“Over that time, I was able to see which bits of the farm were important for wildlife and which would be productive for farming,” Jack says. The way he had followed his interests in farming meant that organic principles would be applied right from the off, with no spraying and no artificial fertiliser. He gave himself five years to establish a nature-friendly farm at Treberfedd, so they could make the finances add up.

The first three years taught him an important lesson about the process of converting highly-improved land back to something more natural. “When the use of herbicides was withdrawn, there was an explosion in dock. But then there was also an explosion in the population of dock beetles whose larvae eat the dock leaves. After three years, it reached more of an equilibrium. The docks were still there but in no way dominating the pasture. I saw the natural cycle of the land rebalancing,” he says.

“You do get a drop in the production from the land for the first two to three years, but then with the right methods like rotational grazing, clover and the targeted use of animal manure, you see a gradual rebalancing and increase in soil fertility.”

A turning point for Jack came in 2012 when torrential summer rain left him and other farmers scrabbling around for forage amid a serious shortage. Realising he had too many animals for the land, he cut back livestock numbers to ensure he would never be in such a position again.

Treberfedd now spans 140 acres across two sites, with a mixture of grasslands, old and new woodlands, hay meadows and wetlands. The farm has a 70-strong suckler herd of Hereford cattle and 60 Llanwenog ewes. The cows are let out of the indoor sheds and put on a rotational grazing system at the end of March, with calving in spring. The cattle move every seven days or so with the sheep following them. Between 30% and 40% of the fields are closed off for hay or silage, while a couple of fields are set aside for hay meadow restoration and are cut after mid-July, with the plants setting seed to produce habitat for wildflowers and pollinating insects as well as a mineral-rich feed for the cattle and sheep. There are also a small flock of chickens for egg production, which takes Jack full circle to keep the birds as a boy at home in the garden.

Jack hasn't had to buy in hay or silage since 2012, and the pasture has reduced his vets’ bills dramatically as well. The animals browse hedgerows and trees in addition to grazing, while in the spring or autumn, a field is sown with a mix of clover, herbs and grasses. 

Trees are also at the centre of Jack’s thinking. Since 2004, more than 15,000 trees have been planted at Treberfedd, and Jack says more need to be put in along with deep-rooted grasses to provide resilience against climate change. Located near Lampeter in West Wales, the farm is buffeted by Atlantic storms with rainfall which is getting more intense, while the past two summers have seen temperatures soar to unprecedented levels of over 35C.

“I'm a strong advocate for the place of trees within food production," he says. "I believe passionately that we shouldn’t look at land use as an area entirely for food production or for forestry. We need to integrate trees with farming."

Trees make farms more climate resilient, they are an effective buffer for the farm against extreme weather such as storms, flooding or excess heat. I’ve seen the results on my own farm, with trees benefitting food production, biodiversity and carbon sequestration.

Jack Cockburn

“My focus is leaning more and more towards agroforestry while maintaining an organic approach and rotational grazing," he says. "A cow or a sheep can suffer severe heat stress once the temperature is over 25C if it can’t find shelter. Shelterbelts and trees are so important for the welfare of the livestock. Without them, they are more prone to disease and health problems, and they spend less time grazing. I also want to plant individual trees within fields so the animals aren’t competing for space or bunching up. The more tree cover you’ve got, the better.”

The farm’s commitment to biodiversity comes into its own during cold Welsh winters when the ground is frozen. Spreading farmyard manure has previously brought golden plovers flocking to feed while goldfinches and linnets gorge on thistles left to set seed.

“As a farmer, I take pride not just in producing food but in seeing all the different species that live on the farm," Jack says. "I’m trying to farm in a way that produces food in harmony with nature. I get a lot of job satisfaction from that, but it has to be economically sustainable.”

Jack is frustrated that his organic farming alone is not enough to pay a wage on its own, and the holiday accommodation and training venue remain a vital aspect of the business for balancing the books. He is keen to improve awareness of where quality food comes from, taking tourists on farm walks, welcoming school groups and taking part in the Open Farm Sunday initiative.

“Food production, people and nature have got to be brought together on every farm," he says. "We need people to buy from nature-friendly farms with higher welfare standards and to choose those over lower-quality imports, and the only way to get that is through connecting with the public. With education, people can make choices that are good for their health, good for the countryside and good for the planet."

Looking to the future of government support schemes in Wales, Jack is resolute in a land-sharing approach bringing the most benefits. “Land use schemes need to equally value food production, biodiversity and carbon sequestration. It needs to be holistic. A holistic view of nature-friendly farming is not to parcel the landscape up into rewilding in one section, commercial forestry in another, intensive food production in another. We should bring interlinking and diversity into the design of the landscape.”