10. Agriculture

The agricultural industry has seen difficult times for well over a decade. BSE, followed by foot and mouth, has taken its toll on farms, farmers and labourers alike. Membership of the Devon NFU has fallen by around 60% in the last five years, indicating the extent to which farmers are leaving the land. The average age of farmers is now around 55 years. Many of the younger generation have chosen to work in other industries. Some young people, not from farming backgrounds, are entering the industry, but this is insufficient to replace the retiring generation. Recent changes in product sourcing at Sainsbury’s supermarket led to the closure of medium-scale lamb processing facilities at the Lloyd Maunder abattoir at Willand in Mid Devon in early 2006. Sainsbury’s
drive for greater cost-effectiveness in competition with Tesco and other supermarket giants required a direct sourcing policy from large scale abattoirs only. Many farms supplied lamb direct to Lloyd Maunder, to the specification of the abattoir. To continue supplying the supermarkets, these farmers will nowneed to send their animals to abattoirs further away, observing appropriate health and safety regulations. Lloyd Maunder now concentrates on chicken processing. This decision has dealt a further blow to farming locally.

Local farmers continue to look for ways to diversify, including development in activity tourism, renewable energy generation, fish farming and farming exotic animals for the gourmet table. The ‘GATE TO PLATE’ marketing drive, which the WEBNET PROJECT underpins, explores ways in which farms can supply customers direct with fresh, local farm produce. One of the most successful additions to the local calendar has been the revival of the Mid Devon Show in the 1990s. It is a large one day show, bringing together town and country on the last Saturday of July (the first day of ‘factory fortnight’), and is now the ‘public face’ of farming for the area. It provides a unique opportunity for local people and tourists to understand more about food sources, animal husbandry and farming as a business, for country pursuits to be advertised and for local farmers to learn some of the ways that agriculture diversification is working.

10.1 The agricultural landscape

DEFRA now provides data based on Middle Super Output Areas (MSOA). Three MSOA lie wholly within the Exe Valley Plan area. These are Mid Devon 1 (MD 1) covering a large area in the north and west. Mid Devon 2 (MD 2) and Mid Devon 5 (MD 5) cover the area to the north of Tiverton and immediately surrounding Tiverton. Part of three other MSOAs cover the area of the Plan. Mid Devon 6 (MD6) includes Halberton and part of Canonsleigh, Mid Devon 8 (MD 8) covers Silverton, Cadbury and

Butterleigh, and North Devon 14 (ND 14) covers parishes in the extreme west of the area, Cruwys Morchard and Puddington, together with Rackenford and Witheridge (included in the DCC Tiverton Market Town profile). The statistics below are drawn from these MSOAs in DEFRA’s 2004 census. The degree of reliability of the figures is variable.

10.1.1 Farm ownership The pattern of ownership in Table 11 shows
significant variation across the area, with the highest percentage of rented holdings located in the immediate vicinity and to the north of Tiverton.

Knightshayes Court (National Trust), formerly the home of the Heathcoat-Amory family, lies one miles north of Tiverton, and the family still own much of the land in this area. Elsewhere in the Mid Devon SOAs, between 20% and 30% of the land is rented, falling to 15% in the Witheridge area of North Devon.

10.1.2 Farm size The area is characterised by small farms. 39% of holdings are less than 5 hectares in size. 21% are between 5 and 20 hectares, 17% are between 20 and 50 hectares, 13% are between 50 and 100 hectares and 10% over 100 hectares in size.

10.1.3 Land use Generally, the type of farming reflects the type of land. Some of the most fertile land (Grade 1 red soil) is found in the Lowman valley (see the Agricultural land classification on p.51). The predominant land use is permanent grass. However, the proportion of permanent grass to other types of land use in the north and west of the area and around Tiverton is significantly higher than in the south and east of the area. In the latter, the proportion of land under crops, lying fallow or under temporary grass is

significantly higher than elsewhere in the region. Much of the cereal grown is used to feed livestock. There is currently concern about the erosion level of soil on over-wintered harvested fields. Wine growing is significant and there is some ‘pick your own’ fruit farming.

More farmers are opting for organic livestock farming. Early research shows this has a greater impact on ozone layer pollution as the animals mature more slowly. The north and west have a significantly higher area under woodland. Dairy farming tends to be on the more fertile land, particularly in valleys, where the soil quality and
nutrients meet the higher demands of this type of livestock farming. Numbers of holdings are declining. Beef and sheep rearing tend to be on Grade 3 and 4 land, often on more open hill country.