A Two-Mile Loop
Collacombe is a family farm at Lamerton, near Tavistock in west Devon. Guy and Fiona Kirkwood run it.
The rotation is silage, maize and winter barley. Every crop is sold as feed to beef and dairy farms within two miles of the farm. The muck and slurry come back from those same farms and go on the land here.
That loop is why bought-in fertiliser has fallen by 66% between the 2021-22 and 2025-26 cropping years. The farm also makes some of its own power, from biomass and rooftop solar.
Crops, Stock, Soil and People
Every Crop Sold Within Two Miles
Collacombe grows for its neighbours and nobody else. Every crop leaves the farm for a beef or dairy unit within two miles, so the haulage is measured in minutes and the value of the crop stays in the parish.
The return leg matters as much. Muck and slurry from those farms come back to Collacombe, which turns a one-way sale into a closed loop between a handful of farms in one valley.
Fertiliser Down 66%
Bought-in fertiliser has fallen by 66% at Collacombe between the 2021-22 and 2025-26 cropping years.
Most of that comes from feeding the soil with local muck and slurry instead of a bag, and from knowing where the shortfalls actually are before spreading anything. Better soil holds more water and more carbon, which counts for a lot in a wet Devon winter.
Sprays are a different story. Crop protection use has not fallen, and the farm still needs the same volume it did in 2021.
Cattle and Sheep
Collacombe takes in a suckler herd of Red Ruby Devon cattle on bed and breakfast over the winter months, and lets sheep keep across the farm.
Both use buildings and grass that would otherwise sit idle, and neither ties the farm to carrying stock all year round.
Birds and Wildlife
Thirty-eight bird species have been recorded on the farm so far, logged with the Merlin Bird ID app from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
Wildlife corridors run across the farm, linking hedges and field margins so animals can move without crossing open ground. A herd of roe deer lives here. Red deer pass through, and otters and pine martens have both been recorded.
Working at Collacombe
Everyone who works at Collacombe has private health cover, paid for by the farm.
The farm also funds training and further education for its staff, whether or not it is directly about farming. Small farms lose good people to businesses that can offer more. This is how Collacombe competes.
TerraMap Review
Guy reviews TerraMap, the soil mapping service from Hutchinsons. It uses passive gamma-ray detection to map up to 48 soil properties at over 800 points per hectare, against one point per hectare for standard grid sampling.
The review asks a simple question: does that much detail change what a farm this size actually does?
Watch the TerraMap review on YouTube