Our Farm Goals and Ethos Evolution

 

Our Story 

The Crumbleton Farm story is accidental. Our destination was never its goal. Its evolution has been a series of wins, mistakes, disasters, random discoveries, the odd bit of useful advice and luck.  We started off wanting to run a B&B with a few farm animals for guest entertainment. A series of events, including Covid, has led us to where we are now passionate about producing healthy, nutritious food and helping as many others as possible to do the same. Through this evolution process we have not established a system of farm management practices and beliefs but rather adapted to the need for constant change and growth as challenges confront us.

 

What We Did 

Being raised a 20^th century man, it was well ingrained in me the need to spray, burn, dig, plough and kill anything that got in the way of growing what I wanted.  The amount of chemical product per metre of shelf was all the proof you needed to know I was really good at destruction. We then moved to Tasmania and I did the usual on a whole new piece of dirt.  I was going to make this place the best farm stay in Tasmania. What resulted was instant success for a few months, then total desertification, except for weeds. Whoops!

 

What Happened 

Through this disaster we became aware of the intricate connections between everything in our lives and environment. Our health, environment, food, animals even insects and microscopic life in the soil are all joined to form an important web of life. When something is out of balance there is a breakdown in the system. Killing stuff, even ‘bad’ stuff, destroys the balance and creates havoc in our health and environment. I had to learn this lesson the hard way.  Fortunately, a friend had taught me the definition of insanity - “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.” I needed to do a backflip in my thinking. In fact, my entire thought process had to change.

 

What We Do Now 

Luckily, I have a very patient and supportive wife who has tolerated my extreme direction changes.  The B&B idea has gone out the window. We now grow meat sheep. So what? Lots of farmers do. But why are we any different?

We focus on the health of the soil. When you get this right, the fungi, bacteria, worms etc in the soil become healthier and more active, which leads to healthier plants and as a direct result, healthier animals and even healthier humans.  A lack of nutrition in our food is one of the major causes of modern health problems.

How We Do It 

We don’t use, pesticides, fungicides, synthetic fertilizer or ploughing. Our sheep are fed only the grass, hay and silage produced on the farm and what they find in the bush, which surprisingly provides important supplements. We have planted over 25 varieties of grasses, herbs and legumes so they have the choice to eat what they need. The sheep are rotated through different paddocks so they always get the best and freshest feed. This constant movement means they are interacting with us daily so their stress levels are very low. We are also looking at further reducing other artificial inputs such as drenches. Ironically this style of farming, which improves our health, has also been shown to significantly improve the health of our environment. It’s a win/win.

 

Our Ethos and Goal 

Our ethos now is to out-compete rather than kill the weeds, pests etc. that stop us growing what we want. At this stage, removing weeds is still necessary, but decreasing as the farm regenerates.

Our goal is to show others what we do so they can see that there are alternatives to the standard way of farming. Our goal is also to produce meat which is healthier and cost effective for our customers. Ultimately though, we want to show people a different way of thinking that may have a positive impact on their lives as well as the environment.