Meet our members: Richard Packer
Richard Packer farms beef, sheep and arable on Cartington Farm, Northumberland, with wife Clare.
They took on the 550 hectare farm from her father John in 2012.
The farm has 66 hectares of arable ground, 45 hectares of temporary grass, 15 hectares of woodland and 270 hectares of heather moorland. The remainder is a mixture of permanent grazing and rough grazing with Cartington Hill in Higher Level Stewardship.
The farm has 300 breeding Lleyn ewes and 80 breeding Galloway cattle.
Clear goals for a profitable farm
“When we came into this business Clare and I set ourselves four goals and we’re still standing by them today and that’s what has led us down the regenerative route,” says Richard.
Richard Packer farms Cartington Farm with wife Clare
“At that time we had a sense that subsidies were not going to last much longer and we wanted a resilient business that could withstand climate changes and policy changes.
“We made the decision that we would try to move our farm to a point where we were financially independent of the subsidy. Any subsidy we did get we could then invest into infrastructure to build up the resilience of the farm.
“We really wanted to leave the farm in a better state than we got it so that someone coming in could see the improvements and we could tangibly show the improvement by data.”
“We also made the decision that we wanted breeds of animals that were predominantly native and could survive on largely a forage-based diet with minimal input requirements.
“When we started we were spending a fortune on feed for the sheep to keep them going through the winter. When we actually worked out our variable cost per lamb, it was horrendous, because the inputs were massive compared to what we were actually generating and producing.
“Finally, we really wanted to leave the farm in a better state than we got it so that someone coming in could see the improvements and we could tangibly show the improvement by data.
Low input livestock
"When we came here there were no cattle and the sheep level was quite low. We started by building the sheep level numbers up, and then got into the Galloway cattle enterprise. The farm hadn’t had cattle on it for 20 years and they are now the biggest part of it.
“We sell breeding cattle from the Galloways, as well as store cattle and fat cattle. They have been great from day one because they are so low-input and grass fed and they can spend all year outside.
“I realised that soil was the missing piece of the jigsaw. I knew I had been looking with the right intent but I hadn’t been looking at the right thing. ”
"All of our lambs either go for internal breeding replacement, or for fat lambs, or a small percentage will go for store lambs.
“With both the sheep and the cattle we sell meat boxes straight from the farm. We now have over 100 customers who come direct to the door. We developed that business as a way to diversify but also as a way of getting people to be able to see what we're doing.
“They can walk around the farm and they can have a look and make a bit of a day out of it. It gets people thinking a lot more about what farming is and where their food comes from.
Soil health: ‘The missing piece of the jigsaw’
“We’ve had lots of good advice from some really good farmers along the way and I’ve always been to loads of discussion groups and am quite comfortable stealing other people’s ideas!
“But going to the Regenerate Outcomes event at Westhills Farm, a neighbouring farm run by Joe and Rachel Henry, was a real epiphany for me.
The Regenerate Outcomes farm walk at neighbouring Westhills Farm
“I’d spent 10 years focusing on grass and if people asked me what I was doing I’d say I was a grass farmer. What we were producing was almost a byproduct of that.
“I was trying to get the sward as healthy as I possibly could but I was focusing on everything that was above ground.
“When I went to Westhills, I listened to Kyle Richardville, from Regenerate Outcomes’ mentoring team, talking for 10 minutes about the importance of rooting depth and diversity of plants and aggregation of soil.
“I realised that soil was the missing piece of the jigsaw. I knew I had been looking with the right intent but I hadn’t been looking at the right thing.
“The soil is the thing which is going to enable us to leave this farm in a better state. It’s what joins the whole circle together from a business perspective and the goals we set ourselves.
Mentoring and support from Regenerate Outcomes
“There have been all sorts of support available from Regenerate Outcomes. There was the Soil Health Academy last year, which gave us the chance to meet a broader set of farmers who were doing similar things.
“That’s just great because it gives you the chance to pick up ideas from other people which is always a good way to learn.
The Regenerate Outcomes Soil Academy in Northumberland
“It’s also given me the opportunity to have a mentor. I feel it’s really important to have someone who I am accountable to and who can be there at the end of the phone if I need a second opinion.
“My mentor Stuart Johnson has been absolutely invaluable in helping us progress on this journey.
“The carbon baselining and measurement which Regenerate Outcomes offer is an important service and it will be a good outcome if we can get a return for the improvements we’ve made to the soil.
“It will also be incredibly interesting to see what the carbon levels are like in all the ground that we’ve got here.
Making changes to improve soil health
“As I started to focus more on soil health, I began to think about developing the infrastructure for mob grazing and where I could put hydrants, water troughs and electric fencing.
“Our arable ground is contracted out stubble to stubble and initially I thought I would leave it as it was and focus on the livestock side of things.
“But when I went to the Regenerate Outcomes Soil Academy in 2023 I came back absolutely buzzing with ideas for how I could improve things.
“My mentor Stuart Johnson has been absolutely invaluable.”
“I headed straight out with a spade to our first arable field and I dug a soil sample and, frankly, I was shocked by what I found.
“The only way I can describe it is as a congealed mess and it smelt almost completely of chemicals, even though the above ground crop looked perfectly healthy.
“I came back in and said to Clare that we need to start managing the arable differently or we’re not going to be able to leave all of this place in a better condition.
“Alongside that the potential for improvement on that arable ground is probably far greater than it is on the grassland.
“The contractor we work with has been very supportive about coming with us on the journey of trying to improve the soil in our arable fields.
“We’ve now put 20 hectares of it into a legume ley for two years and we’re trying to get diversity of roots and depth of roots into the soil and fix some nitrogen.
“We’re going to go two years of legume followed by two years of arable and I would like us to move away from mechanical work on the land if we can and towards direct drilling.
“I feel we’ve worked really hard in the previous decade getting the right type of stock on the farm and getting the business model right. Where I want to be is to get to a point where we can really improve the soil quality overall. ”
“The plan for the other arable ground is to go down the GS4 route, where I can graze it or cut it as well and introduce some extra fertility through the winter by getting some cattle on there.
“We're at the point now where we've got the infrastructure for mob grazing in place across the whole farm. I have the ground to do long rotations so that I can give the land time for the necessary rest and recovery.
“We're still at the point where we have to set stock the sheep at certain times of the year.
“I don't imagine that I'm ever going to get to a point where all of my stock is mob grazed and rotating. I think it's a matter of recognising those times of the year where actually you get the benefit of using the mob.
Richard is beginning to see the benefits of mob grazing across his farm.
“I think we are already starting to see some of the differences, certainly with a longer rotation and leaving a bit more grass. There's more evidence of wildlife, there's more evidence of aggregation in the soil.
“I feel we’ve worked really hard in the previous decade getting the right type of stock on the farm and getting the business model right. Where I want to be is to get to a point where we can really improve the soil quality overall.
“Hopefully that will really start to kick on as we do things a bit more intensely, with more intense mobs and muck on the ground.
“Ultimately, it’s all about achieving our goal of knowing that when we do eventually hand the farm over it will be in a really good state for someone else to take it on.”
Mentoring in soil health for profit and production
Regenerate Outcomes provides mentoring in soil health to help farmers increase profits and improve crop and livestock performance.
We also provide soil carbon baselines and measurement to generate carbon credits which can retain or sell for additional income.
All of our services are provided at no upfront cost.
Download our Programme Handbook to find out how we can work with you.