About James Robinson

James Robinson is a fifth-generation dairy farmer at Strickley Farm near Old Hutton, Kendal, in Cumbria, where his family has farmed since 1875 on land first established around 1200. He runs the 300-acre (121-hectare) organic dairy farm alongside his father and his son Robert, the sixth generation, with his wife Michelle and mother also contributing to the business, from school visits to paperwork.

The farm milks around 120 Dairy Shorthorn cows, a native breed chosen for its ability to convert the farm’s grass into milk and cope with the banks and long walks to grazing ground. The herd has been closed and home-bred for around 15 years, and the farm is now moving into direct milk processing and sales, supplying organic milk cooperative Organic Herd as well as selling under its own name through Booths supermarket.

Strickley has been fully organic for around 16 years, free of artificial fertilisers and pesticides, and James describes the farm’s direction as increasingly regenerative. Nature-friendly practices are woven throughout: some 7.5 miles of hedgerows are managed on a long rotation so that field boundaries range from newly laid to towering 20ft-plus specimens, watercourses are fenced off to protect water quality, and 4 hectares of wood pasture have been planted to give cattle shade and shelter as summers grow hotter. He’s also introduced herbal leys with species like clover, chicory and plantain to build soil health and deepen root structures, and has recorded 94 bird species and over 200 plant species on the farm.

“Having that resilience right across the farm; be it areas where the cows can go for shade and shelter, water going out to fields, big hedges, or the right type of species in the sward the cows eat… They are our future goals – to just try and improve on that all the time.”

James also chairs the England steering group of the Nature Friendly Farming Network.

He will be leading a talk on Dairy farming in the Plenary tent – “Cows, Hedges, Becks, Nature and People”