H.E.HALL & SON

Where have we been?

The family has grown apples, pears, plums and hops here in Marden for over 100 years. Originally, the farm production was mixed with sheep, cattle and poultry, pecking around the yard and grazing on meadows and under large traditional fruit trees. Only one standard Bramley orchard planted in the 1930’s remains as testimony to what once was; by 2018, the hops, for which we had pioneered a unique organic production regime, had also gone.

By the mid 1980's, intensive conventional farming systems based on synthetic agrichemicals and fertilisers were increasingly being questioned. As production intensified and monoculture dominated the farming landscape, habitat and biological diversity markedly declined. We began to recognise a strong demand for affordable food that came with a provenance and was produced using a more sympathetic approach. In 1987, we developed an organic regime to grow hops specifically for craft brewers looking to exploit the nascent organic beer sector. We also started to experiment with novel organic fruit production techniques culminating in 2007 with the planting of our Organic Concept Orchard.

With considerable help from, amongst others, the scientists at East Malling Research Station, we switched our conventional production to a fully Integrated Crop Management system and began to make real progress producing perennial crops to organic standards. The field margins, hedgerows and waterways were enhanced, restored and managed under early Countryside Stewardship schemes to create the optimum habitat for predatory insects; our chemical inputs were all evaluated for their environmental impact as well as their price and efficacy.

Out went residual herbicides and cheap ‘slash and burn' non-specific pesticides, to be replaced with automated weather stations, computer generated pest and disease models and products that left predatory insects such as Anthocorids, Ladybirds, Lacewings and Typhlodromus mites intact to help fight the battle against such difficult fruit pests as Bluebug and Woolly Aphid, Pear Sucker, Fruit Tree Spider Mite and in the hops, the Two-Spotted Mite and the devastating Damson Hop Aphid; we also aimed to leave populations of 'neutral' insects untouched.

The change in herbicide policy produced a flush of opportunistic annual weed species within our conventionally managed orchards and cereal crops; this provided a late summer bonanza for insect and seed eating birds resulting in a significant increase in both diversity and number. A switch to Spring sown cereals also meant that over-wintered stubbles provided a bridge through the hunger gap for the many farmland birds: Yellowhammers in particular seemed to benefit from these changes. Originally a participant in The RSPB Farmland Bird Survey, the farm is now monitored by volunteers from The Marden Wildlife Group.

As well as our orchards, now all under an organic regime, we manage our meadows and grassland organically. Our arable land, whilst not quite there is receiving no synthetic pesticides and only a restricted range of herbicides; it also hosts flower margins and rotational winter bird food crops as part of our overall conservation strategy. As a result of our departure from The EU, The Department of Farming, Environment and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) has had its hands freed from the grip of the hopelessly outdated Common Agricultural Policy and is delivering targeted help to farmers via The Environmental Land Management Scheme (ELMS). This aims to provide financial help to farmers on a ‘Public Money for Public Good’ basis and recognises that whilst good land management can and must go hand in hand with food production, the farmer’s efforts in managing the farm’s Natural Capital for the benefit of all should be rewarded accordingly as with the provision of any other service. These Environmental Stewardship Schemes are constantly evolving, and with 26 other farmers forming The Marden Farmer Cluster managing over 3500 hectares in and around the village, we hope to be able to help deliver DEFRA’s Holy Grail of Landscape Scale Habitat Recovery.

In 2023, Kent County Council initiated the ‘Making Space for Nature’ - MS4N – audit of the county’s Natural Capital. It is hoped that the resulting data will enhance decision making at a county, borough and local level and thus help to deliver these landscape scale environmental improvements to soil, air, water and biodiversity.

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