Founder of Wildfarmed — a regenerative grain brand connecting regen farmers directly with premium flour and bread markets. Featured farmer in Issue 22 (July 2023); farmer focus in Issue 27 (April 2024).
Wildfarmed represents a significant commercial model for regenerative agriculture — creating market pull for regen-farmed grain by building the brand, flour mill, and bakery connections directly. Pays farmers a premium for grain grown to Wildfarmed regen standards.
Appearances
Issues 22 (featured), 27
[Sources: dd-issue-22, dd-issue-27]
Issue 22 — Featured Farmer: Colleymore and the Wildfarmed Standards (July 2023)
Andy’s debut as Direct Driller Featured Farmer, written from Colleymore — a 295 ha National Trust farm on the Coleshill and Buscot estate that he and his family moved to in 2021 after years farming in France. About a third is permanent grass; the rest is Grade 3 arable, predominantly heavy clay sharing the same “very small window between too wet and too dry” he was used to in France.
From France to a Wildfarmed community of 55 farmers
The piece is essentially Andy’s plain-spoken account of how Wildfarmed came to be. Years in France, on land much of which had been reduced to 0.5% organic matter, taught him both the cropping skills and the financial and psychological cost of trying to turn around degraded soils. The breakthrough came when he started adding value through milling and baking — a farm shop served the local community, with farm visits and engaged customers.
“Wildfarmed began as a collaboration with two friends from other walks of life completely and came from a conviction that we need these kind of field to plate supply chains at scale in order to create stable and fair prices for farmers, and engagement in the food system from customers.”
There are now 55 farmers in the Wildfarmed community, sharing knowledge and agronomy support.
The 50 cm centre strip-till system
At Colleymore, Andy is trialling things he might want to recommend to growers. Wildfarmed Standards require plant diversity — cereals must be grown in the company of one or more companions. Wheat-and-beans, barley-and-pea are now well-established combinations among growers. Andy is going further: this spring at Colleymore, he planted both using variable rates for the legume element, from 40% to 70% of full rate.
The farm operates on a 50 cm centre strip-till system. Drills tried so far include a Rapid with alternate coulter pairs blocked off, and a Sprinter running a second front tank to deliver different seeds to every other leg. “One of the headscratchers when doing this is symmetry” — the Sprinter requires a 575 cm working width with a solenoid on the outer coulters that toggles to keep alternating rows across the field.
Inter-row mowing — the origin story
Andy’s polycropping journey began with the design of an inter-row mower to manage permanent pasture between crop rows. The mower has gone through many versions; several Wildfarmed growers now use one built along the same lines on annual and perennial inter-row combinations. Trevor Tappin’s liquid applicator has been moved between drills to apply biological brews at seeding, on the back of John Kempf’s work on seed drenching.
The science partnerships
Andy is working with Andy Neal at Rothamsted to understand the changes in soil biology that follow increased above-ground complexity, and is running an experiment comparing glyphosate vs tillage on the soil microbiome. Soilmentor tracks changes; SAP testing assesses nutritional needs. Post-harvest infrastructure has expanded too — a tie-up with Robin Appel to separate large volumes by size, colour and weight.
“There is so much to learn, and fascinating things to try. One of the joys of being part of a community is that we can learn so much faster.”
[Source: dd-issue-22, 2026-04-13]
Related Pages
- No-Till Economics — Benchmarking and Cost of Production — Premium market models for regen produce
- Net Zero Carbon Farming — Regen ag supply chain development