As farmers, we take pride in our role as stewards of the land alongside producing high-quality food. Here in Northumberland, we are fortunate to operate in some of the most beautiful natural and farmed landscapes in the world and it is our mission to provide environmental benefits alongside our farming practices.

We are engaged in a number of agro-environmental stewardship schemes which include:

  • Higher Level Stewardship (HLS/ELS)
  • Countryside Stewardship (CS)
  • Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI)
  • England Woodland Creation Offer (EWCO)

These commitments allow us to promote biodiversity and create natural habitats across the land that we manage. Similarly, we are undertaking a programme of carbon sequestration through the development of new native woodlands.

With over 30Ha of rotational agro-environmental commitments, we maintain strong habitat diversity which benefits wildlife across our land. These include flower rich margins and nectar flower mixes as habitat for insects and pollinators, as well as wild bird seed plots to provide feed to birds over winter. Our reduced imputs, and watercourse buffers help ensure that nutrients and agrochemicals remain where they should and not pollute watercourses.

An large beech tree in an area of semi-natural ancient woodland

Our afforestation programme has seen us plant 10 acres of new native woodland in the last two years, on previous arable and pasture land. Not only will this provide new native habitat, but will help sequester atmospheric carbon.

A leguminous nectar-flower mix (food for the bees)

Our hedges mean a lot to us. We have set ourselves the goal of restoring all the hedges on our land, and so far have planted and gapped up over 4km of hedges. Similarly, we manage our hedgerows carefully to promote habitat for wildlife by only cutting one in every two years, and strictly during the winter.

Summer hedge with native dog rose flowering

We manage over 225ac of woodland, a lot of which has become degraded or was originally planted with non-native species. Our strategy with the woodlands is to gradually reduce the amount of monoculture and non-native plantations with highly biodiverse native mixed woods to improve natural biodiversity, carbon sequestration and overall woodland health. Primarily, this is achieved through gradual thinning and replanting with low-impact machinery. A recent project has seen the use native rare breed Tamworth pigs to manage the forest understory and promote new growth of native vegetation.

Some of the Tamworth pigs used to help naturally manage woodland