RNAA Members Visit Houghton Hall

It was a glorious September morning as 80 members met at Lord Cholmondeley’s Houghton estate near King’s Lynn.
Mark Nicholas, the RNAA’s managing director, explained that the president, the Marquess Cholmondeley, was unavoidably absent on other business.
He asked members and guests for a minute’s silence following the death of Her Majesty the Queen. As most of the visitors were looking towards the distant neighbouring Sandringham estate, it was fitting to remember the association’s former patron and her visit to the 1986 Royal Norfolk Show.
Robert Miller, the estate’s farms director, welcomed the visitors and said that Lord Cholmondeley had started the conversion process to organic farming in 1998. Today, the entire 3,800-acre estate was in hand and was completely organic, with a large Jersey dairy herd and enterprises including organic vegetables, almost 1,000 acres of mainly spring-sown cereal seed, beef and sheep and truffles! Other enterprises had been introduced including about 12 acres of blueberries with three varieties planted in spring 2019 plus five acres of Aronia berries, planted (and watered) through the drought. The prospects for this superfood were especially exciting.
Other highlights of the visit included being driven through the park to view the estate’s herd of about 350 famous white fallow deer was established more than 120 years ago. In addition, about 100 red deer hinds ranged across the 350-acre park and there was also a small nucleus herd of 30 white fallow deer.
Since 2017, when the dairy enterprise was established at Houghton, it has become a significant business and plans were in hands to increase the Jersey herd to about 650 cows – all fed on home-grown forage and maize. A new herringbone parlour, capable of milking 50 at a time, was built to a New Zealand design, with a throughput of 300 cows an hour, with two or three staff.
Calving twice a year, the organic milk was supplied by the farmer-owned co-operative, Arla, on contract to McDonalds. In the last 12 months, the dairy had generated total income of about £1.4m – and a further bonus, the milk cheque was paid fortnightly.
While producer milk prices had plunged to an all-time low in 2015 of about 14p litre, prices have since recovered to more than 52p litre plus an organic premium of about 10pc.
Visitors heard that Cholmondeley Farms, which also has a similar Jersey enterprise on the Malpas estate, Cheshire, will now have a total of about 1,200 cows.
The Houghton herd, which is housed over three winter months to February, is fed a diet of silage, boosted by five cuts of lucerne, plus red clover and forage maize and grazed on about 187 acres of grass for as many months as possible. In total, 350 acres of lucerne and red clover were grown as part of a seven-year rotation for organic carrots.
The lush fields of lucerne have thrived even in this testing drought year and massively outperformed adjoining red clover crops.
On the light sandy soils, building fertility has been key to the development of the estate’s successful, sustainable and profitable enterprises. While about 80 acres is also devoted to a 48,000 outdoor broiler enterprise, run by Traditional Norfolk Poultry, the organic litter is a valuable additional source of nutrients.
Another block of the estate had been let for a 300-sow outdoor pig enterprise, which incidentally King Charles III visited some years ago. This arrangement has now ceased.
In part of the park, a beef enterprise with Longhorn and some Beef Shorthorn cattle, has been slightly reduced to about 30 pedigree suckler cattle. Simmental and Shorthorn bulls have also been introduced to produce slightly larger and faster finishing progeny while a sheep flock of about 450, mainly Lleyn ewes, also benefits soil fertility.
As the party toured the estate in three tractors and trailers, it was an opportunity to appreciate the scale and success of the various organic enterprises. In total, the estate and its farming operations with specialist partners and businesses, employ around 70 staff.
The estate’s head ‘keeper Robert Hall also briefed the visitors on the extensive environmental stewardship schemes, which have been part of the estate for the past 18 years. Establishing and then maintaining organic stewardship game cover and field margins had been a challenge but it has produced some terrific results from almost 100 acres of wild bird mix and 90 acres of autumn-sown bumble bee mix.
In a national survey by the GWCT (Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust) last year, the Houghton estate had been “top of the league” for insect numbers. Mr Hall said that populations of insects and butterflies had again been monitored this spring and summer and he was hopeful that Houghton would maintain its premier position when results were known.
As a result of the rise in insect numbers, this had been a major boost to the estate’s population of native English or grey partridges, which could successfully feed and raise young chicks.
The party enjoyed lunch provided by the Houghton estate and then was invited to tour the hall’s formal state rooms, the walled garden and the sculptures in the park.