BEEF, WARWICKSHIRE: Greg is a fourth-generation beef farmer in the hamlet of Little Orton, on the Leicestershire-Warwickshire border. As well as farming on 110 acres (45 hectares), Greg and his family diversified into storage, lettings and book fairs in primary schools to keep him and his family afloat.

Back in the early 20th century, the farm had a bumpy start. Greg’s great-grandfather bought it in 1922 but died suddenly in the early 1940s. He left £8,000 of debt owed to relatives so the family decided to sell the farm to the Crown Estate, and rent it back. Happily in 2017, a couple of years after Greg graduated from Harper Adams University, his family managed to buy back half of the farm.

Greg, who took over its management, was keen to do things differently, adopting some regenerative farming practices. “I had fallen out of love with conventional methods and the financial challenges and burdens they bring,” he says. “I was selling to a commodity market where I had no control over the price my products fetched, and I was buying inputs, such as fertilisers, the prices of which I had no control over either.”

Greg now sells his beef direct to customers and to local butchers. Greg rotationally grazes his 48 Hereford cattle on 60 acres (24 hectares) of permanent pasture and fields planted with herbal leys (a mix of herbs, grasses and clovers sown to enrich the soil) so he no longer needs to buy in large quantities of feeds and other inputs. In winter, when the cows are housed indoors, they are fed silage and hay that’s often home-grown.

“After three years of not putting nitrogen on our grassland, we can see the problems that it was masking, and we are now working out ways to address our root causes,” says Greg. “We are seeing more wildlife, such as birds and hares. We see swifts and swallows following the cattle in search of insects to eat.”

In addition, part of the farm is let out to a tenant farmer who grows arable crops using ‘conventional’ methods.

Greg loves working with animals and being outdoors, rather than in an office. He also enjoys the challenge of striving to improve the business and to support the environment in which the farm stands. “I love the freedom to be my own boss and to experiment and take risks, thanks to the income I get from diversifying into other businesses,” says Greg.

His main diversification is school book fairs. His family runs up to 600 a year, in schools across the Midlands. “The majority are in the winter, which works well alongside the farming business.”

Greg also runs school visits and farm walks to help children, and the public in general, understand what farmers do and to show them the beneficial impact of livestock on the environment. “It’s important to show people what we farmers do,” he says.