Healthy land, healthy beef: A conversation with young regenerative beef farmer Harvey Dunn
Harvey is a fellow member of the Emergent Generation network and runs a regenerative beef company called "Haythorn Cattle". Harvey is an impressive young farmer who has built a regenerative cattle business (Haythorn Cattle) in line with his personal values. From my short conversation with him, it was clear that he had a very well thought through business model which brings in regenerative principles and high animal welfare standards meaning that it is resilient and sustainable into the future. Read on to find out how Harvey developed his regenerative beef business and how he got into regenerative farming.
Box 1: What is regenerative farming?
Regenerative agriculture is a set of farming practices in line with the following soil health principles. It is an outcomes-based journey of improvements, within a given context.
(Source: https://www.groundswellag.com/visit/about)
How did Harvey get into regenerative farming?
Harvey is from a beef farming background but wasn’t fully invested in farming when he was young, it was just his way of life and a family business. So, before returning to farming he worked a couple of other jobs such as sales and construction and did some travelling. It was not until he was separated from farming that his interest in regenerative methods grew. The business principles outlined by regenerative farming (see box 1) caught his eye and led him to set up a business around those core principles. For Harvey, these principles and his farming heritage got him excited about being back in agriculture.
“You grow up with it, so it’s in your bones definitely. You don’t realise that until you come back to it with an interest”.
The journey into regenerative farming was a slow one. He began to be exposed to more media about regenerative farming such as on YouTube or Instagram. In particular, Allan Savory’s Ted Talk and some of his work on holistic management really piqued his curiosity. Even though at the time he wasn't working in farming, he jumped on a couple of courses. Harvey noted that using online mentors encouraged him to get back into farming using regenerative techniques.
"Time by time, I got the chance to think actually I'd like to give this a go myself and put boots on the soil. I felt more confident because I'd actually educated myself"
The motto for Haythorn Cattle is "healthy land, healthy beef". Why Harvey based his regenerative farming business around beef production:
Although he had attended an agricultural college to study BTEC agriculture, regenerative farming was still on the fringes of the course content and taught as an alternative to conventional farming rather than a mainstream solution to farm business operation. However, since starting his beef business, regenerative principles have been at the core of the management decisions made.
“In reality and what I’ve experienced since starting my business is my entire business, everything I do, every minute of my day, is based on regenerative principles.”
Harvey's business is called Haythorn Cattle. He mentioned in our conversation that people often wonder why he has used the word "cattle" in the name of his business as that limits what he can do. However, having grown up on a beef farm he has chosen the production system and product he is most passionate about and experienced in. He believes that focussing his business on this one aspect and doing it well as a specialist, will increase business profitability and success.
“The fact that I grew up around cows meant that when I started looking into regenerative stuff, I naturally got drawn on towards, you know, the chapter on cows, you know, I was, I just wasn't that fussed about the other topics. So then it just snowballs. Once then I had more knowledge in cows, I feel more ready to start a business doing cattle."
The stars of the operation (the Haythorn cattle)
The regenerative system taken by Haythorn Cattle:
“It's more, as you well know, it's more of the approach to farming or the land in general or the soil. So really, I always go back right all the way back to the soil really is what I'm trying to improve. And that is essentially I am trying to year on year improve the soil and the soil function all the time."
Although Harvey has limited his business to cattle, that gives him a great opportunity to be regenerative. He described cattle farming as an easy and accessible way to get into regenerative farming as you don't need a lot of machinery or inputs. The whole principle around regenerative cattle farming is based around rotational grazing and ensuring that you incorporate a rest period into the grazing pastures. By rotating the cows in a well-managed way, Harvey can regenerate the soil in the area that other farms manage.
(Source: Anthony Hauck - Audubon, 2023)
This regenerative system undertaken by Haythorn Cattle encourages the public to directly buy beef from the farm gate, whcih further engages the public in food and farming.
“I'm kind of lucky in that iit's a business model that is win-win in terms of regenerative. Like, I think, I'm sure you've seen this, the idea of being regenerative is seen by a lot of people as in contrast to being profitable or productive on farms. Whereas I guess it is a product of the way I've structured the business, but I am now at the situation where the more regenerative I become, the more profitable I become. And there's not a lot of businesses that can say that. So that's a really fun place to be for me, because I can just walk out every day and be like, how can I be more regenerative"
“I guess it's like a bit of a bias pool because people that are interested in sort of ecologically good food and natural food have come to me because of the product I produce. So, I'm getting a disproportionate view of the public, obviously. But that's the way it is, and it's great to interact with those people. Their priorities, I can tell, are definitely the quality of the product itself.”
Harvey has a large social media following. He discussed the role social media has built in building his objectives:
Although he has only been on Instagram for a year, Harvey has an impressive following on both his business @haythorncattle and his personal farming @thebeeffedfarmer accounts. Being on social media has been a learning curve as you get a real mixture of opinions and comments on your content. For Harvey, it's fascinating to hear opinions that don't align with his values as it allows him to learn what he is up against and the barriers that would need to be overcome people' critiques.
"I did a video the other day that got over 100,000 views. And that just blew my mind. I barely know 100 people, never mind, you know, thousands. So when you're exposed to that many people for good and bad, you receive a lot of feedback. So, you know, very quickly I've networked with some great people all around the world and connected with people on a deep level that you I never would in person because I never would have met them."
What's next for Hawthorn Cattle?
Harvey has big plans for the future of Hawthorn Cattle, and I am looking forward to seeing how it develops!
“Yeah, definitely looking to expand. And in parallel with that, I want to bring people in as much as possible. I'd like to hire a team of people around me. One to enable the expansion and also to help me. I mean, this has been a crazy busy year for me and I'm aware that the amount of work at the minute probably isn't sustainable, so I'd love to have hope to do that. But equally, I'd just love to bring more young people, especially. Maybe that's unfair, but I'd love to bring young people, especially into this industry and this type of work from the business side of it.
And then also on the retail side of it, I'd like to be able to sell more beef to more people, and...And also maybe, I'm also looking at hosting events and that kind of thing. Yeah, I just, in every area of it, I'm thinking how can I put people in and around this?"
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Until next time...
I am very excitied to have the opportunity to visit Duration Brewing in West Norfolk. Te next blog post will uncover their exciting collaborative and regenerative approach to making beer.
https://durationbeer.com/our-story/
https://www.instagram.com/durationbeer/
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