Home where the deer and the buffalo roam

May 23 2009 by Tony Henderson, The Journal

Environment Editor Tony Henderson on a home where the buffalo roam.

THE pair of rare bee eaters which nested in a County Durham quarry seven years ago created an almighty buzz in the birdwatching world with 22,000 people turning up to catch a glimpse.

But as well as being crowd-pullers, the bee eaters left a legacy for Farnless Farm, which adjoins the quarry nature reserve at Bishop Middleham, near Sedgefield.

The birds set off a chain of events which has seen the farm work closely with the RSPB, Natural England and Defra so that it now has the biggest population of corn buntings in the region.

They are one of a staggering 138 bird species which have been recorded on the 200-acre farm.

The support for the birdlife at Farnless is part of a wider re-evaluation of what direction the farm should take for the future.

This has also seen the arrival of 16 North American bison and 200 red deer, which supply the farm shop with organically-raised lean, low-cholesterol meat.

North American elk and rhea – a smaller South American version of the ostrich – are the latest pilot projects at the farm.

“The bee eaters were the start, they kickstarted things,” says Lynn Pelly, 31, daughter of farm owners Stuart and Daphne Anderson.

An RSPB team stayed in a cottage on the farm to provide a 24-hour guard for the bee eaters’ nest.

Lynn says: “They would wander around the farm. It was teeming with bird life and they said, ‘Do you realise what you have got here?’

“Our eyes were opened to all the wonderful habitats on the farm and it happened at the time when we were thinking about diversification.”

Lynn, an environmental scientist who graduated from Durham University, and husband Simon, 36, who has a degree in animal science, work in partnership at the farm with Stuart and Daphne.

Simon spent two years in farms at North Dakota in the United States, where he learned about bison.

The couple brought new ideas about the way forward for the former dairy farm, which has been in the family for three generations.

One direction was boosting the bird population. There are three, five-acre plots sown with different grain crops for the birds, with the stubble being left over the winter.

The farm fields have 6m-wide grass margins to encourage insects which feed the birds. Two ponds and a five-acre lake, with mud scrapes and islands, are also a bird attraction at the farm, which has an environmental stewardship scheme and has now been named Farnless Farm Park.

“We are the stewards of the land for the next generation,” says Simon. “The farm is our future and we work with nature. We are not tree huggers, but we want to prove that farming and the environment can work together.”

Around 10 bison calves are expected soon and 15 eggs from the rhea are being incubated.

Lynn says: “I thought the red deer would be a good idea and Simon thought the bison would be a good idea.”

A special licence had to be obtained to keep bison, and the high tensile steel for 8ft-high fencing had to be sourced from Texas.

“The bison and the deer run together and they produce what I call superfoods – very lean and low cholesterol meat,” says Lynn.

“Superfoods may well be the way forward. The animals are raised organically on different grasses and wild flowers. They are basically wild animals and they have plenty of space and a natural environment. We still have our old hedges and oak trees and the flower grassland for the bison and deer, and the birds have also benefited from this.”

Farnless will be part of Open Farm Sunday on June 7, a scheme which is run nationally by LEAF (Linking Environment and Farming) .

The farm is two miles from junction 60 of the A1 and is off the A177 near Bishop Middleham.

For details ring (0191) 377-1428 or visit www.farnlessfarmpark.co.uk