Next generation of farmers steer Suffolk estate into new era

Now it's entering a new era as its young generation takes control.

The farming clan - uncles, aunts, grandparents, cousins and all - moved en masse from Northern Ireland (and the Isle of Man) to a small corner of Suffolk in 1986.

David and Sharon McVeigh decided to build a new life - bravely taking on an ancient and beautiful Tudor mansion in need of restoration - Kenton Hall, near Debenham - and the farm that went with it.

At that time, younger siblings Emily, Lucy and Tom - all now in their late 20s and early 30s - had not been born. They grew up on the idyllic 450 acre Suffolk farm surrounded by their wider family, fields and farm animals.

David - who has a keen engineering mind - developed a state-of-the-art farmyard, complete with a carefully-constructed roundhouse barn to shelter his cattle in winter.

Today three of his children are running a complex operation encompassing a range of farm business and diversifications - Tom is the most recent to return to the fold to manage the farm enterprise. David continues in support mode but leaves the day-to-day operations to his children.

At the estate's heart is an arable operation - now including a new agroforestry venture - plus about 20 to 30 English Longhorn cattle, rare breed pigs and areas for wildlife. Diversifications include a wedding venue, glamping - and a newly-revamped cookery school. 

The farm hosts a variety of groups including hen parties - and Duke of Edinburgh Award youngsters come to learn skills such as cooking.

The new generation loves a social gathering on the estate, and hosts events including open-air cinema, and most recently, a stargazing evening. The McVeighs are keen to connect with young people and get them onto the farm to see what they do.

Where many modern farms are isolated and comprise a workforce of as little as just one (the farmer) and possible one or two farmworkers, Kenton is home to a much more sizeable and vibrant community of people who live and work there.

A friend of the family, Cameron Wheeler, lives on site and runs his own market garden venture called Five Rod Farm, growing produce for vegetable boxes on a field in the middle of the estate.

Meanwhile Tom, 27, has seen in his first harvest after taking charge of the farm operation. He is also a young farming ambassador, having been selected by the National Farmers' Union (NFU) to promote the industry and learn more about the policy-making that underpins it.

He is keen to innovate and experiment on the farm. The Longhorns, he says, are renowned for the quality of their marbled meat - and he has just been in touch with a London jewellery-maker keen to use the horns to fashion some items.

The cattle enjoy their comfortable winter home. The roundhouse - built to a New Zealand design - is often a focal point for farm visits by schools and others, and a platform has been installed so that the clever design can be viewed from above.

"Cattle respond really well to being housed in circles rather that squares," he explains.

The farm is a hive of activity. David has just constructed a feed mill so that the farm can make its own feed - one of his many engineering innovations. A wooded area is used by the Suffolk Owl Sanctuary to rehabilitate owls back into the wild.

Tom is working on his first borage crop, learning as he goes with the help of Fairking at Great Tey, which grows a range of specialist crops.

"It's my favourite crop because it's completely dependent on bees to pollinate it," says Tom.

At the same time, he is part of a Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) pilot, creating wildlife corridors across the farm.

At 90 acres and about a mile long, his wheat field is huge - but it is surrounded by wildlife corridors.

Across the farm, he has created wildlife-friendly areas - 18m banks to provide winter feed for farm birds- and beetle banks. He must provide feedback throughout of how the scheme is progressing which means an enhanced payment regime.

In his agroforestry field he has laid out walnut and hazelnut trees between 24m strips for various crops.

As well as wheat, he is growing beans, borage and barley. He is hoping that by careful planning he can avoid too much disease and therefore cut his chemical inputs. He must balance practicality with the desire to do more for the environment while growing food.

"I think culturally farmers don't like taking land out of food production, he says. 

"I really like the ethos of regenerative farming but I have got clay soil and it doesn't really lend itself to heavy land. A lot of the processes of regenerative farming are about returning moisture for example, but I don't have a problem with that on our farm."

This year he enjoyed quite good wheat yields and as the farm is fairly small he was able to combine it speedily between this year's torrential downpours. The one disappointment was the quality as it didn't reach milling quality.

With blackgrass a problem, he is splitting his planting 60/40 winter cropping versus spring cropping this season.

Emily, who is married to farmer Alexander Aitchison, lives at Acre Farm, Monewden Hall, near Framlingham. They run the operation along with Alexander’s parents Caroline and Robin Aitchison.

The farm incorporates agroforestry and they also have a micro-bakery specialising in sourdough bread baked in a wood-fired oven. The bread is baked over wood collected from the farm and contains wildfarmed flour.

Emily organises the cookery area at Kenton Hall - which has been created inside a former cow shed. This year, it was given a major facelift - nine years on from its launch in 2014. 

The new school was created with the support of premium German appliance brand Miele, and local kitchen specialists Anglia Factors. Courses -  with themes ranging from bread workshops to game and Thai food - are led by resident chef Sophie-Rose Glover.

Following the relaunch in April, it hosted foodie weekends throughout the summer and a monthly food hub including burger night on Fridays and a food fair on Saturday mornings with a farmers’ market, pop-up cafe, cookery masterclasses and farm tours. 

There are public footpaths through the middle of the farm, and this is another way of linking up with the public, explains Lucy, who is reinvolving herself in farming activities following the birth of Margo, her nine-month-old baby.

Lucy used to work for Gressingham Foods. When the company decided to sell off a poultry farm in Attleborough in 2021, she felt it would be a good new venture to take on. She took over the running of the farm and it became Gressingham's biggest duck producer. "It was an amazing project to do," she says.

But disaster struck with a bird flu outbreak at the height of a major epidemic in East Anglia in October 2022.

Lucy was heavily pregnant with Margo at the time. "It was horrendous," she says. The entire 98,000-strong flock had to be culled and the sheds had to be thoroughly cleansed before reopening.

But now the crisis is passed, and the farm is leased to Banham Poultry, which uses it to rear chickens, says Lucy, who is in charge of managing the farm's properties and lettings and also keeps the books.

"A new addition for this year is we are trying to be a bit more public-facing to educate the public  about what happens beyond the farm gate so we thought a good idea would be QR codes around the farm," she says.

It's "really cool" to be able to host food fairs and farmers' markets - and to be able to "tell the story" of food production, she says. One of her first projects has been organising the stargazing event with top local astronomer Tom Boles. "It's really exciting," she says.