Meet Cornhill Farm

In 2019, Len, Pete and Jenny Olds of Cornhill Farm took a deep breath and ended their free-range egg contract with Waitrose. Now, they’re Cornwall’s Farmers of the Year.

Jenny explains how the farm found success by looking local – selling thousands of eggs every day to shops and kitchens within a 20-mile radius.

It’s easy to assume that success means expansion – reaching customers further and further afield. But for Cornwall’s Farmers of the Year, the Olds family of Cornhill Farm, Kehelland, the opposite is true.

For the past five years, the Olds’ free-range egg business has focused on shops and restaurants near the land their family has farmed for more than a century. Even their chickens’ feed is grown and milled on site. And they’re now feeling the benefit of that decision.

Peter and Jenny were named Best Commercial Farmer’ at The Addington Fund’s Cornwall Farm Business Awards, before taking the overall winner-of-winners title.

“Farming is such hard work,” Jenny smiles, “So the award was a lovely surprise. It’s recognition for all the hard hours Len and Pete have put in over the years.”

A long tradition of change

Walking away from their Waitrose contract is far from the first time the Olds family have made bold changes to keep Cornhill Farm sustainable.

When Peter’s great-grandfather moved from Lelant in 1912, the farm was a traditional mixed farm before focusing on producing beef and vegetables for supermarkets in the 1980s. As prices changed, Pete’s father, Len, made the switch to arable. And when Pete finished school in 2002, Len embraced the idea of poultry farming to enable Pete to also work on the farm.

“Pete and Len saw a cross section of a hen house at Royal Cornwall on a Thursday,” Jenny says. “By the Saturday, they’d signed a free range egg contract with Waitrose.”

A further three sheds followed, taking the farm to 13,500 hens. Cornhill became a circular farming business, where arable, poultry, contracting and environmental stewardship all complemented each other.

But although the egg business was expanding, it was not consistently profi table as the contract egg price was constantly under pressure. Another change was needed.

From price taker to price setter

“Under the contract, we knew every egg would be collected and paid for,” recalls Jenny. “But we took a long, hard look at our business and the price just wasn’t sustainable.”

Encouraged by thriving interest from local customers – along with a hugely popular honesty box stall – the Olds ended the contract.

Jenny approached local shops and restaurants between Truro and Land’s End, while stepping up the farm’s social media presence and participating in Open Farm Sunday. And when the pandemic struck – bringing a surge in home baking – the effect was transformative.

“Now we sell every egg locally, which is a lovely position to be in,” Jenny says. “Dealing directly with 120 local customers is a different ball game, but it’s changed everything. We’re the price setter, not the price taker.”

We’re selling every egg we produce. There’s a growing appetite for good local food – and when people buy from their village shop, it helps our local, west Cornwall economy.”
Jenny Olds, Cornhill Farm

Ready for the next generation

As custodians of a long-established family farm, Len, Pete and Jenny know the importance of investing in the future. As well as focusing on soil health, carbon and biodiversity, the farm welcomes 20 educational visits each year and 1,100 visitors arrived on the farm for Open Farm Sunday in June, which sees lots of other local farmers and businesses also helping on the day.

“When our children started school, we realised how much agriculture needs to be in the curriculum,” Jenny emphasises. “These are future customers and policymakers, and they need to know where their food comes from.

“Thankfully, it’s easy to get children excited about farming. We have loads for them to see: hens, arable, tractors and pigs. I hope more farms start to do it. Some farmers might be nervous about hosting school visits, but they’re such a receptive audience.”

Len has also been proactive about planning for the future, working with Brian Harvey to find the right structure for transitioning the farm business, while staying an active part of farm life.

“You need good succession plans for a healthy business,” Jenny concludes. “We work well as a trio. Len moves fast, and he’s open to new ideas. He designed three of our hen-houses – making improvements each time – and he’s working on a fifth hen-house, which will take us to 17,000 hens. Pete executes the ideas and day to day farming, and I look after the ever increasing admin and egg marketing.

“Len and Pete are the third and fourth generation of our family to farm here – and our son Jack currently has every intention of being the fifth!”