Herefordshire family farm dubbed one of the very best (From Hereford Times)

Herefordshire family farm dubbed one of the very best

10:00am Thursday 23rd July 2009 in Farming By Liz Watkins

FARMING at Homme Farm at Walford, near Ross-on-Wye, is big business – and also one of the best.

Proof came at the Royal Show when the Royal Agricultural Society of England (RASE) recognised owners, the Drummond family, as “outstanding farmers”.

They were awarded a commemorative plaque for excellence in practical farming and business, with the RASE commenting on their diverse skills in growing more than 1,000 hectares of cereals, peas, potatoes, soft fruit, cider apples and turf, as well as running a poultry enterprise.

Farmer Eric Drummond is extremely proud of the award because the farm is family orientated, all of them involved on a hands-on basis, managing a fulltime staff of 50 and 350 seasonal workers.

But he is quick to admit they are backed up by a strong team of managers, highly skilled in their individual parts of the operation.

Mr Drummond took over the farm when he was 28, following the premature death of his father, also Eric, in 1979 at the age of 56. The farm has grown since then, now covering more than 1,000 hectares within five or six miles of Walford.

The day-to-day management is carried out by his eldest son Ben, 28, and second son Mark has just joined the team to look at expanding into farm shops and retailing.

The youngest, Sam, is at Harper Adams agricultural college preparing to link into the business in the future.

The farm grows 240h of winter wheat, 120h of spring barley for seed, 150h of potatoes, and 100h of oil seed rape. It devotes 15h to growing peas for seed, and soft fruit covers 75h. An unusual venture is growing turf, which takes up 85h.

On top of that, there are five sites for poultry, holding 1.2 million chickens at any one time.

Three of these are devoted to producing chickens under an animal welfare scheme, the others to conventional methods.

Farming at Homme Farm is not just about physically growing crops, management takes up just as much time – planning rotation ahead, negotiating contracts for the produce, buying in for next year, meeting deadlines, coping with a plethora of new regulations, rules and restrictions which hit the farm desk almost each week and not forgetting the unpredictable weather, which can upset all the best laid plans.

“A strong office is a must,” said Mr Drummond.

The family has also won the award for the best managed farm over 1,000 acres in the Harewood End Agricultural Society’s annual farm competition, giving them a chance for a double celebration.

But Mr Drummond, his wife Sanna and sons do not plan to rest on their laurels – they have just been given planning permission to create three lakes on their land and to store 33 million gallons of water from the River Wye.

The site covers more than 22h, the water will be used to irrigate crops when needed and will take up to four years to complete.