About The Whell Family
Martin and Bridget live at Leyonne, a farm near Fowey, where they manage a milking herd of 400 cows. They are part of a family partnership with Hedley and Barbara, Martin’s parents who live near Luxulyan and manage a herd of 230 cows. Much to their pride, both their daughters, Beth and Abi are currently working with them with a view to committing to the business for the future.
The herd at Leyonne is spring calving, so a very intense season of work from the middle of February to the end of April. This means they can better manage the grazing for their feed around the natural growth cycle of grass, which makes up 95% of their diet until October when it has to be supplemented with conserved forage. The cows then get to lounge around the yard while in their dry period preparing for their next lactation.
Martin and Bridget are learning a lot about working with natural processes, using diverse leys, minimal till techniques and finding innovative ways of improving the carbon stocks and fertility in the soil. They are also finding ways to include useful trees in the farmed environment and improve the life of their cows – they deserve it!
Why they like to work at Trewithen
Martin and Bridget enjoy working with a family based, local business where you can just pick up the phone to those in charge. Producing a locally sold product gives them a huge sense of pride.
Main Cow Breed
Their cows are a 3-way cross with Jersey, Scandinavian Red and Friesian to give hybrid vigour, a strong resilient animal giving a creamy milk.
Favourite Cow
Everyone has a different favourite cow, but it is the ones who seek out the attention that get most of the attention. They all have different characters!
Their regen journey so far
The family feel it’s like going back to College while working full time; so much is being learned that it is exciting and scary all at the same time! They are understanding more about how the biology in the soil works, how nature is a big network and how they can work with it. In the early stages they found there is a risk to productivity. Martin and Bridget would best describe it as a journey with learnings and challenges along the way!