A warm welcome to the Cotswolds

BIG Stalls and LITTLE Stalls are two beautiful holiday cottages outside Kemble in Gloucestershire and near to the Wiltshire border.

The traditional Cotswold stone cattle stalls were converted to luxurious holiday accomodation in 2007 and are set in the fields of the Kemble Farms dairy and arable estate located around the official source of the River Thames. Both cottages have views over fields in every direction while inside you are surrounded by comfort, convenience and sophisticated interior design.

Kemble has a station with direct trains from London Paddington. While the village is home to a gastro pub and a well stocked village shop. Cirencester and the Cotswold Water Parks are less than 10 minutes away.

3-bed House Available to Rent

Charming village home particularly suitable for anybody needing to travel from Kemble train station.

Total renovation includes painting throughout, new carpeting and new fully-fitted kitchen. Dining room and sitting room downstairs with working fireplaces. Pretty smaller fireplaces in bedrooms upstairs.

Set back from the road, there is a small garden to front and rear (where there is a large shed with lock, and smaller woodstore/shed with door), and an extensive garden which is laid to lawn to the side of the property. The other side of this large garden is the village stores and post office, so all-in-all an exceptionally well-situated and convenient property!

A simple and charming village home with modern convenience.

• Working and Feature Fireplaces
• Large Garden
• New Fully-fitted Kitchen
• New Carpets
• Walk-in larder/cupboard/small office
• Dining Room
• Sitting Room
• Locked Outdoor Shed
• Woodstore

£1200pcm

For all enquiries contact the Kemble Farms Office (contact details here) or visit Cavendish Green’s website here

Permission sought for new housing at Top Farm

As you may be aware, we have now submitted a planning application for the development of land at Top Farm. This will comprise a mix of 43 houses and 34 extra care units. Extra care is a type of affordable retirement housing with a minimal level of care or assistance for residents. It will enable elderly residents to down-size and remain in the village whilst the new housing provides a mix for younger people and families.

The Farm has a long established relationship with the village and local people, which we value. It is extremely important to us that the final scheme responded to the wants and needs of local people as best it could. However, the scheme has also had to satisfy officers at Cotswold District Council in terms of the layout and connectivity with the existing village.

We have worked with the design team to achieve a development that we feel will be consistent with the character of the village. The development will reflect the traditional style of the buildings in the village and maintain views out across the countryside, as we know these issues are important to existing residents.

The layout will see a new area of public open space and footpaths on the western boundary whilst West Lane will be aligned to provide a safer access to the A429. The new junction is also designed to deter rat-running along West Lane.

We believe there is a genuine need for new housing in our village. The proposal has the opportunity to improve our village with traffic calming on the Malmesbury Road, a new classroom for the primary school and affordable housing for Kemble residents. The proposal will see the relocation of our existing operations at Top Farm to Smerrill Dairy.

We hope you will support our proposal. The application number is 11/04236/OUT. If you have any queries please no not hesitate to contact us via Conor or Chloë at Hunter Page Planning on 01242 230066

Sharing our experience with Countryfile

We were asked to share some of our dairy farming experience with the BBC’s Countryfile recently.

To see what we had to say visit the BBC iPlayer website using this link here:

Kemble Farms appear on the BBC's Countryfile

Top Farm Housing Proposal

This week sees the public stage of consultation about our proposal to develop Top Farm. We have already consulted various groups such as the Parish Council, the Village Hall and the School to get an understanding of their views about the scheme. Now it is the turn of the rest of the village. There will be an opportunity this week to view and comment on the plans on Wednesday afternoon (2pm -7pm) and on Saturday morning (10am -2pm). We are also listening to people’s views on what new facilities might be provided to benefit the village as part of this development.

I have lived here in Kemble with my family for over 35 years and it is my home. So I am very keen that any new development makes Kemble a more attractive place to live in and this will be the abiding theme of the new development. At the same time as making the new development as attractive as we can, we need to take account of the needs of all who live here and aspire to live here. To this end the new development will aim to provide opportunities for people who want to live and work from home as well as those who want to live here and work elsewhere.

The village enjoys an exceptional level of features and public support through the many organisations that work hard to make this a great place to live and the farm has always worked closely and supportively with the village to promote village life.

From the provision of the Village Hall, the Playing Field and the Village Shop to the establishment of new footpaths for walkers, each generation of the farm has taken an active part in village life.

However there have been times when our much loved amenities have been at risk and I can remember when the School was under threat of closure as was the shop and the pub to name a few. It was the development at West Hay that helped turn the fortunes of the village around at that time supplying much needed new pupils for the School and business for the pub and the shop as well as new members for the Church.

Today we are facing an uncertain future and I hope that as well as complimenting our heritage the new development will, with the support of the community, breathe valuable new life into this thriving community that makes Kemble such an outstanding success.

Colin Rank
Chairman

Cropping for 2011

Kemble

• Winter Wheat 326Ha
• Winter Oilseed Rape 159Ha
• Spring Barley 52Ha
• Forage / Energy Maize 184Ha
• Game Crops 10Ha
• Grass Leys 70Ha
• Permanent Pasture 140Ha

Contract Farm ‘One’

• Winter Wheat 100Ha
• Winter Oilseed Rape 98Ha
• Spring Barley 81Ha

Contract Farm ‘Two’

• Winter Wheat 52Ha
• Winter Oilseed Rape 58Ha
• Spring Barley 70Ha

Keeping busy in the snow

Kemble Farms were out early on Saturday morning clearing the minor roads in and around the village.

At the Biogas plant, we recently had to shut down for an hour or two in -8 C. The weather was so cold that the oil in the engine became too viscous to start. A 4Kw heater has now been fitted in the engine to take care of exceptionally cold conditions and to enable us to operate in similar circumstances.

Biogas Progress Report

The learning curve

Having passed our two year milestone in September we are settling down well in our ability to manufacture Biogas on demand and to regulate the output.

Glycerol

One of the key tools for doing this is the use of Glycerol which although used in small quantities is very responsive in accelerating gas production. It is rich in carbon and enables the feedstocks we use, the cow slurry and the maize silage, to be much more productive. It is a catalyst of great value to the process and enables the feedstocks to produce 50% more methane.

The market for Glycerol has hardened of late and as we now have our new Environmental Permit we are only allowed to use Glycerol produced in connection with the manufacture of Biodiesel from Virgin Oil unless we pasteurise our Digestate which would be very expensive.

Glycerol from Virgin oil is difficult and expensive to source. Most Biodiesel is produced from Used Cooking Oil which the Environment Agency treats as a waste. Once labelled a waste the products produced down the line are treated as a waste until they qualify for End of Waste status.

We are in discussions with the EA to determine that the End of Waste as far as Glycerol is concerned happens before we acquire it. A recent court case ruled that End of Waste transpires when certain processes occur in the formation of a specifically manufactured product for which there is a market and which also presents no hazard to the environment. The three tests which the EA have come up with to determine End of Waste are quite reasonable and we feel that the product that we want to use meets those tests. We now need to persuade the EA to agree.

Reliability

During the last two or three months our CHP (Combined Heat and Power) unit has been testing our patience. Reliability is key to maintaining output and we have learnt a lot over the last two years.

One thing I would recommend to anyone looking at Biogas production is to have more than one engine unit as there are a great many reasons to suffer a shut down. With only one engine we are either generating or we are not. When we are not generating the running of the plant becomes an on cost and there is no income.
Farming is the key to AD

Looking forward we are very confident that this technology is made for the farm.

Farmers own the key to AD because they have the means to distribute the Digestate on the farm and big plants produce a lot of Digestate (the residue from the Digester) which is expensive to distribute.

The value of Digestate

We are seeing the benefit of being able to use Digestate in place of bought in artificial fertiliser which is made from fossil fuel. The organic content of the Digestate dramatically improves soil condition holding in moisture and encouraging worm activity.

We are turning a source of methane which is so much more damaging to the global warming situation back into the less damaging CO2, we are improving the crop quality and durability, reducing costs and because we supplement the diet of our cows with trace elements and minerals these vital ingredients are being returned to the land where we know that plant take up supplies them in a readily available form in the food you eat. It’s a win/win situation on a massive scale.

Almost as an afterthought the farm is supplying renewable energy to the national grid and heat to the dairy and the cottages our workers live in.

It is such massive benefit to the environment that sometimes when I am writing yet another pleading letter to the EA I stop to wonder who really cares about the environment. It makes you wonder sometimes.

We all need to get behind this technology and make it work for the Environment, for Farming and for Britain.

CRHR
16/12/10

A Successful Summers Eventing and sales.

Here at Kemble Equestrian we’re winding down from a successful summers eventing and looking back at the horses we have sold this year.

The season finished extremely well for The Court Jester, who Niki Pack (ne Rank)  brought as a 3 year old  in Ireland.  He was sold just before Burghley to The Arscott Family for Nick Gauntlett to ride.  Not only was he second in the BYEH final,  11th at the Lycetts 5 year old Eventing Championships at Osberton, and 2nd in his first novice. He then went on to win the CIC* 5/6 year old class at Aldon Horse Trials by a clear margin of 10 points! We wish them all the best for next season and will enjoy following their progress.

Another horse whose progress we will enjoy watching in the future is Goodwins Reef, who was recently sold to Belgium rider Tintin VanRijckevorsel from Bill Levett’s yard where he has been for the past two seasons. Niki Pack brought Goodwins Reef (Magnus) as a 4 year old and produced him up to Novice level before handing over the reins to Bill Levett.  Bill successfully completed Hartpury CCI** and Highclere  Advanced with Magnus before the sad decision was taken to sell him as we had been unable to find a buyer to part own him with Binnie Rank in order that the horse could stay with Bill. We understand that Magnus  has joined Tintin’s string of horses with a view to being a back up horse for the 2012 Olympics!  We wish them all the best.

Earlier this year Ocean Mist a home bred horse, was sold locally to Camilla Carr for a change of career onto the hunting field which is proving to be a great sucess. We will enjoy seeing him out with the VWH.

At home Niki enjoyed a great summer with Tagus Creek a 6 year old, brought from great friend Nicky Roncoroni as a 4 year old.  He has just completed his first season at Novice level achieving some good placings and finishing the season with a great double clear in the CIC* at Gatcombe Horse Trials.

Another horse at Kemble Equestrian that has just embarked on his eventing career is the lovely 5 year old Wing Man. He was also brought as a 4 year old at the end of 2009 and has been taken slowly but is now ready to crack on next season.

Niki is currently making a few trips to Ireland looking for a couple of youngsters to join the team at Kemble Equestrian. Also on the shopping list is a replacement hunter for Binnie Rank!

Sammi Mcleod and her team are still as busy as ever with a bulging yard of 14 horses! Sammi is a great inspiration and talent to have around and we very much enjoy sharing the yard with her.

We continue to have approx 7  liveries, most of whom are students at the Royal Agricultural College in Cirencester and are an enjoyable addition to the yard.

Greater capacity creates cost saving opportunities

We have made significant investments over the last 18 months to increase our field operation capacity.

Cultivation, drilling, spraying, fertiliser spreading and harvesting equipment have all been upgraded to give us much greater capacity in these field operations. All operations are GPS controlled from our base station at Kemble, which has a range of up to 10 miles. This enables us to complete all tasks with optimum timing and accuracy with time to spare.

This results in an efficient operation keeping the cost of each pass to a minimum.

We are therefore in a position to offer an efficient, cost effective service to arable businesses in the locality, which are looking to reduce the cost of their field operations.

We have the capacity to take on Contract Farming Agreements providing cost savings for the farmer and further efficiency savings for us. This means that we are in a position to be very competitive.

From Kemble to Burghley and Success!

This weekend saw an outstanding result for one of Kemble Equestrian’s recently released young event horses. The Court Jester, ridden by Nick Gauntlett, came second at Burghley in the Young Event Horse five-year-old Final.

This result is not only a reward for the hard work we have put in together over the years but also a confirmation of Jester’s happiness in his new home as he left us only three weeks ago!

Well done Jester and well done Nick!

See www.burghley-horse.co.uk for more info.