The farm concentrates on breeding, showing and selling pedigree Holstein stock. David Graveston successfully sells many of his stock on, not just to other areas in England but also over to Ireland, Scotland and Wales. David therefore has to keep his stock in extremely good condition and one way of doing this is by housing them in straw yards. By storing the cows in these straw yards, more solid manure is created. It is much better for the land if this manure is stored before being spread and originally David stored this manure as an open mound in one of his fields (this ‘mound is also known as a midden).

Although perfectly legal these middens are a potential source for water pollution. The Water Code notes, “Heaped stores can make a lot of liquid waste if stored outside. This liquid has a high biochemical oxygen demand and there is a high risk of it causing pollution”. With an annual rainfall of 1182mm in the Gisburn area the midden will create a large amount of dirty water each year containing leachate. The Policy Commission on Food and Farming (January 2002) noted, agriculture is now a major polluter of water and that over 70% of nitrates and 40% of phosphates in English waters originate from agricultural land.

In order to try and reduce the amount of pollution caused by the midden, David decided to build a new specialist store including a roof to compost the straw and manure prior to ploughing into the land. The Rural Sustainable Marketing programme was able to help fund this project as we have money available for environmental capital projects as well as marketing initiatives.

To contact David Graveston regarding his pedigree Holstein stock ring 01200 445319.

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