Tim Verey
Buckinghamshire
Livestock (mixed)
MIXED FARM (PIGS, SHEEP & CATTLE), BUCKINGHAMSHIRE: Tim is the fourth generation in his family to run their 250-acre (101-hectare) mixed farm. Their livestock includes Suffolk, Charolais and Wiltshire Horn sheep; Aberdeen Angus cattle; and outdoor reared Oxford Sandy and Black pigs. Most of it is butchered on the farm and sold in its shop that opens Thursday to Saturday.
The meat, including homemade sausages, is also served in the Larder Café that Tim runs with his wife Helen Tuesday to Saturday. In addition, the farm is home to a flower farm and a cheese shop, run by two other families.
Tim believes that by visiting the farm people make an important connection with their food. “They watch Clarkson’s Farm on the telly and now they can experience what a farm is like in real life, and actually talk to the farmer,” says Tim. “They want to educate themselves and their children, and ask questions.”
Keen to make the farm nature friendly, Tim has been restoring and replanting native hedgerows, double fencing ditches to provide wildlife corridors, and planting more trees around his fields. “My goal is to make the farm a sustainable and resilient business for anyone taking it on in the future,” he says. “Top priorities are stabilising its finances and mitigating climate change.”
Tim has also branched into a ‘crop’ that’s becoming increasingly popular nationwide: solar panels. He has installed 50 acres (20 hectares) of them on fields that used to produce arable crops, and the land is now grazed by sheep. The big advantage of the solar park, he says, is income stability, in contrast to the wildly fluctuating prices of arable crops. He also saves on the cost of buying fertilisers too, so the panels feel like a no-brainer, he says.
Tim sets aside a few hours every week to run and cycle along the local lanes, and several times a year competes in half and full marathons around the country. “Running helps me put things into perspective,” he says. “I do it for my mental health as much as physical health.”
Talking Point
Tim believes producing food while also protecting the environment and biodiversity is doable – provided farmers get sufficient support from both government and consumers. “I think farming for food while providing benefits for nature and wildlife is achievable on a practical level, but needs government support which includes long-term planning. It also requires a huge shift in consumer habits, which I feel is much harder to achieve. But by selling direct to the public, we are hopefully helping to change things. We’ve all got to be involved in the way our food is produced, and maybe starting on the local level is the way to go.”
Declared interests
Member of British Pig Association
Member of National Farmers Union