No Herd Required
“No herd required, no herd required. Watch what the green manure does when it's desired.”
The story behind the song
Tolhurst Organic, run by Iain “Tolly” Tolhurst on the Hardwick Estate in South Oxfordshire, has been farming organically for more than 40 years. In 2004 it became the first farm in the UK to attain the Stockfree Organic symbol, certifying that no animal inputs, manure, blood, fish or bone meal among them, are used anywhere on the farm. There have been no grazing animals or animal-derived inputs on any part of the farm since 2008.
Most organic growing still relies on animal manure to build soil fertility. Tolhurst Organic instead uses green manures, cover crops grown specifically to be dug or chopped back into the soil, along with vegetable and woodchip compost made from the farm's own waste. The farm produces a wide range of fruit and vegetables across 17 acres of open field plus a 2-acre walled garden, sold through a local box scheme, farm shop and market stalls.
The song's argument, that soil fertility doesn't have to run through an animal, is a genuinely contested one in organic farming circles, where manure has traditionally been treated as close to indispensable. Tolhurst's four decades of yields are one of the most sustained real-world demonstrations that stockfree systems can work at commercial scale.
- Stockfree organic
- An organic farming system that excludes all inputs derived from livestock, including manure, and instead builds soil fertility through green manures, plant-based composts and crop rotation.
- Green manure
- A crop grown specifically to be incorporated back into the soil rather than harvested, adding organic matter and, in the case of legumes, fixing nitrogen for the crops that follow.
Sources
Agricology. (n.d.). Iain Tolhurst (Tolly). agricology.co.uk
Sustainable Food Trust. (n.d.). Iain Tolhurst on 40 years of organic horticulture. sustainablefoodtrust.org
Stockfree Farming. (n.d.). Tolhurst Organic. stockfreefarming.org