Oli Chedgey
I grew up in Somerset on a small holding but always wanted to farm. After studying Agriculture at Seale Hayne, I started my farming journey by buying 70 draft Romney ewes with a friend. I am now a dairy farmer based just north of Basingstoke in Hampshire. I am the owner of The Roaming Dairy Limited which was set up in 2018 as a share farming agreement with Tim May, owner of Kingsclere Estates Limited. The dairy farm is comprised of 400 Friesian x Jersey cows increasing to 500 in March 2022. The cows are milked in a mobile parlour which is in keeping with the wider regenerative farming activities on the estate. I also manage a second dairy unit in Dorset which was established in the spring of 2021 with very much the same principles however on a fixed parlour and milking 300 Viking Red heifers. Prior to 2018, I set up a conventional extensive beef and sheep enterprise in Wiltshire which is still running that comprises of 1000 acres of rented pasture owned by six different landlords. The enterprise runs 50 pedigree Beef Shorthorn suckler cows and 600 Romney ewes.
Living the Farming Ladder
The Trehane Trust
Study Overview
As a first generation farmer, who has set up 2 successful businesses over the last 13 years, I want my Nuffield journey to explore the next rung of the farming ladder and find out if land ownership is achievable within agriculture profits or if investments should be made out of agriculture in order to make the businesses sustainable longterm.