Land Management

With a large portion of the farm being designated as a SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest), how we carry out our farming activities is highly important, we have to ensure they do not damage the site whilst also working to prevent the site from degrading and where possible improve biodiversity in  areas of the site. As a result many hours are spent consulting with numerous advisiory bodies, such as Natural England, the farming and wildlife advisory group and other smaller entities.

As a result of this and to ensure funding for larger projects much of the farm is entered into stewardship schemes, which itself provides a level of influence over the management activities on the farm, such as encouraging the removal of biomass and subseqently nutrients, the maintainence of ditches to allow open water edges and the development of hedges & hides to provide food and shelter for birds.

Equally, there are numerous special projects on the farm, such as the creation & ongoing management of small scrapes or ponds, our growing collection of apple trees grown from heritage stock orignally bred in Surrey and under threat of being lost to time, and small areas of willow coppice, to provide wood fuel and whips for replanting fallen trees.

Equally important is the consistancy of the management, with many of the features of the farm, from a enviromental or ecological perspective being influenced and ultimatley created by the long standing traditional farming style of slow & steady, with minimal inputs (artifical fertilisers and soil amendments or herbicides in a grassland system), which is very much reminscent of the way of farming in the pre-war years, where many farms began to utilise the mechanical advancements of the era, but are yet to change to a higher input system as food was still only distributed locally, therefore market competition was limited and a higher profitable margin was commonplace.