David Baker Farms was established as a contract farming business 30 years ago by David Baker. It
was
incorporated as a limited company in 2005. David’s son, Matthew, joined the business in 1997
having
completed an Honours degree in Agriculture with Crop Science from Harper Adams University
College.
Shortly after he studied for a BASIS qualification to enable all agronomy work to be undertaken
in-house. Matthew now has day to day responsibility for running the business.
The business was established to undertake whole farm contract arrangements for local landowners.
Farms currently under contract stretch from Ringsfield in the east to Diss in the west, mainly
along
the Waveney Valley.
Many of these contracts have been held for more than 25 years. During this time the business has
worked closely alongside the landowners to establish Countryside Stewardship and latterly Entry
Level and Higher Level Schemes. One off contract operations are also undertaken on a further 200
hectares annually.
The business has always been profitable, and even with the low commodity prices of the late
1990’s
and early 2000’s it remained so, and delivered a financial return to its landowners.
The cropping consists of winter wheat, winter oilseed rape and vining peas.
Soil types are mainly sandy clay loams of the Beccles and Hanslope series. These require careful
management with particular attention to drainage, and especially mole drainage to maintain
correct
soil structure.
Our workforce is extremely loyal, dedicated to the job in hand and well trained. They total 5 in
number. Three of whom have been with the business for over 20 years each.
Modern machinery is operated to ensure that field operations are carried out at the optimum
timing
therefore allowing the crops to maximise their potential and give the best financial return to
the
landowner.