Christmas is coming and the Brussels sprouts are growing fast in fields in the South West.
Every year, farmers Andrew Hibbard and Nigel Freeth grow around 40 tonnes of the brassica as part of an arable rotation on land in Wiltshire. Most of the resulting crop – about 90% – is sold through Bristol’s wholesale market, with the rest going to a small number of local farm shops and retailed direct to the public from a shed on an ‘honesty box’ basis, using social media to announce when freshly-picked sprouts are available.
Nigel has been growing these vegetables for more than 40 years, with Andrew joining him around a decade ago after his family had taken the difficult decision to end milk production on Widley’s Farm in Sherston, part of the Badminton Estate.
Five-and-a-half acres of land are devoted to several different varieties of sprouts, chosen to provide plenty of pickings between November and the end of December. These include ‘Nautic’, ideal for an early harvest; mild-tasting ‘Gladius’, the mid to late-maturing ‘Martinus’, and ‘Batavus’, another late variety that has good frost tolerance.
Plugs are raised from seed by Grants, a specialist grower in East Anglia, and 70,000 are put into cleared areas of free-draining, light and loamy soil over the space of two days using a two-row machine planter at the end of May.
“As a kid I didn’t like sprouts, but they have changed a lot over the years and have become slightly sweeter.”
NFU member and grower Andrew Hibbard
The developing brassicas are sprayed against pests such as the cabbage white butterfly and wet diseases such as leaf spot, while a gas banger helps to deter the attentions of pigeons. A German-made specialist fertiliser used on the soil contains a herbicide that generally helps to suppress weeds, with some hand hoeing used if necessary.
‘People buy sprouts when it’s cold’
Andrew and Nigel rely on the weather when it comes to watering their sprouts, which means drought years can be a challenge, but sometimes such conditions can work in their favour too. “When it’s dry we don’t get the yields and quality, but if it’s excessively wet we can get mildews coming in that affect the buds, and slugs can be brutal,” Andrew explains.
“During the drought of 2022 the sprout stalks were short – no higher than my knee – and the yield was 40% down, but the price was 20% up and that compensated on us having fewer sprouts.
“We also had to contend with three days of snow in December, when we weren’t able to harvest. This year the sprout crop has been like a forest, and we’ve had to put down some slug pellets to protect the buttons from being attacked; generally we use a spray made from garlic to stop them, which is very effective.”
Come September, the tops are cut from the first batch of plants that will be first to be harvested, so that they stop growing taller and divert their energies into maturing the leafy buttons ready to be cut in November and either sold on their stalks or in 9kg bags.
“We’re not big enough to have a self-propelled harvester so we have to cut them by hand with machetes and use a machine to take them off their stalks in the field,” says Andrew.
“Our harvesting days start at 7am, and we need to deliver them in Bristol, which means we’re home by about 9.30pm. We employ three people to help with the harvesting, and over the 10 days before Christmas, when it gets really manic, my friends from Minety Rugby Club come and help out on a casual basis.
“Generally there are seven to eight tonnes of sprouts to the acre. We tend to get an idea of how the market is looking towards the end of October, by which time we’ll have an inkling as to how much the crop will fetch.
“The price varies according to demand: people buy sprouts when it’s cold.”
Keeping your eye on the ball
Nigel and Andrew’s Sherston Sprouts partnership is a combination of knowledge, machinery and land, along with a lot of hard graft. “We started working together after Nigel approached me shortly after completing his harvest to say he was thinking about giving up the sprouts,” Andrew explains.
“His father had originally started growing them as a way of earning money during the winter. Nobody else around here was growing sprouts and it seemed a good thing to do.
“Nigel has the machinery and does the paperwork and I supply the land and keep an eye on the crops, and we all pitch in with the harvesting and grading.
“My wife Ffion manages our social media page and sometimes comes up with our sons to help.”
While the weather plays an important role in ensuring a good crop, the level of vigilance can also make or break Andrew and Nigel’s efforts.
“The key thing to growing sprouts is that you have to keep your eye on the ball,” explains Andrew, who checks his fields once or twice a week throughout the growing season.
Did you know?
90% of Andrew’s crop is sold through Bristol’s wholesale market.
“In 2017 the diamond back moth came in from Europe; the east had it quite badly and it came over this far, but we managed to get on top of it before it could do any damage, and we haven’t been bothered with it since. Aphids tend to be the biggest pest, and this year slugs have been a particular problem.”
Growing sprouts is a big change from dairy farming, something Andrew and his father Michael reluctantly gave up in 2013 after facing the prospect of having to make significant investments in a new milking parlour and increasing the size of their 100-strong Fresian herd.
“Sadly it wouldn’t stack up,” says Andrew, whose family has been looking after the 340 acres at Widley’s Farm since his grandfather Norman Richards took on the tenancy in the early 1940s. “It wasn’t an easy decision to make to sell our herd.”
Fortunately the Brussels sprouts have provided a valued extra income stream for Andrew’s family, who also grow crops such as wheat, spring barley and oats, use their pastureland to look after up to 180 dairy replacement heifers for another farmer, and offer Airbnb accommodation.
Labour intensive
Currently, they’re applying for a grant to invest a direct drilling machine and are looking to use minimum till and mulching in the future.
“The sprouts are labour intensive and not our main money earner, but they’re up there, and I’m enjoying growing them,” says Andrew.
“The varieties we grow tend to change over the years, and the old favourites have gone, often because they’ve run their course. Some of the ones we’re growing this year are new, with breeders making changes to get higher yields. It’s interesting to look at the different varieties growing side by side and see the different foliage colours.
“As a kid I didn’t like sprouts, but they have changed a lot over the years and have become slightly sweeter.
“As farmers we’ve had to be innovative in order to continue our family’s tenancy of Widley’s Farm: we’ve been here a long time and want to carry on.”