Manor Farm - Richard Madge
Seavington News October 1992
VILLAGE PEOPLE
RICHARD MADGE
Richard Madge farms 320 acres in Seavington and a further 150 acres the other side of Ilminster. He moved to Seavington in 1942 at the age of two, when his father took over as tenant of Manor Farm. There was great pressure on farmers to boost wartime food production, which was done in Seavington with the aid of a lot of German and Italian prisoners of war. Since the war the pattern has been one of increasing mechanization, expansion and specialization.
Seavington is in a particularly good area for farming. This part of Somerset enjoys a very fertile sandy loam soil, which has enabled farming communities to grow and prosper here for centuries. The relative historic wealth of the area is demonstrated by the great number of manor houses and large farms. Richard does not know how many “Manor Farms” there are in Somerset!
Manor Farm, Seavington, at one time employed dozens, but now has only 3 full time staff, although the numbers increase at key times of the year, as casual labour helps to get in the harvests. Richard’s son Simon now works on the farm following a spell at agricultural college in East Anglia.
Today the farm continues arable farming, concentrating here on potato and wheat production. But like many West Country Farms, it is probably known best for its fine herd of dairy Fresian cows.
The cows normally have their first calf at two to two and a half years old, and a typical cow will then have a calf at roughly yearly intervals for the next five or six years, although some cows live to be as old as eleven. Andrew Gillard, the herdsman, has been working on the farm since the age of 16 and is responsible for looking after the cows. Not only do cows all have names, nowadays they all have their own computer records. The cows get milked twice a day, 365 days per year. Friesian calves are bred by artificial insemination, but cows not selected for breeding for the herd run with a Beef Bull (often an Aberdeen Angus) and produce a calf for beef production.
Mr Madge and his wife Joy now live in the imposing Manor House, near to the dairy, but they have also lived in the Dairy House, on the other side of the road, which is a somewhat older building. Both are of course built from hamstone, and it is likely that the stone for this and other hamstone buildings in the village, was quarried from the fields which form part of the farm.
Richard is a keen sailor, and has a yacht which is normally moored at Dartmouth. He is very happy in Seavington, to such an extent that he finds it hard to think of any improvements.