The farm
Four generations on the same chalk.
The Hales have farmed this stretch of Wiltshire downland since 1931. We grow malting barley and wheat, keep Hereford cattle and run a contracting team for our neighbours.
Our story
Ninety-five years in five stops.
Bill Hale buys the farm
Four hundred acres of chalk, a Fordson tractor and a loan from the bank. Bill keeps the first ledger in pencil.
The first combine, and the dairy closes
Robert brings in the farm’s first combine. The dairy herd is sold and Hereford beef cattle take its place.
Contracting starts
A bigger drill than we needed, and a neighbour who asked to borrow it. Today we work for thirty-eight farms.
Will and Joanna take over
The hedgerow plan begins: twenty-six kilometres of hedges managed for wildlife and six-metre margins round the fields.
Four generations on the same chalk
Arable, Herefords and a contracting team, with the next generation already asking to drive the tractor.
The land
Chalk, hedges and skylarks.
Furrow sits on thin chalk downland: quick to drain, slow to warm and full of flints that turn up every time we plough. It grows good malting barley and, left alone, wonderful flowers.
Since 2019 we have laid and planted hedges, left six-metre margins round the fields and cut them late so skylarks and partridges can nest. This spring a volunteer counted 41 bird species on a single walk.
6 m
Field margins
41
Bird species counted last spring
The people
Who you’ll meet in the yard.
Will Hale
Farms the arable
Walks every field before harvest and keeps the field book.
Joanna Hale
Runs the office and the diary
Keeps the books, the bookings and the farm diary up to date.
Sam Hale
Looks after the cattle
Ninety Herefords, spring calving and the best eye for a good cow.
Dev Patel
Leads the contracting team
Plans the drilling, spraying and baling round for thirty-eight farms.