Countryside Stewardship Scheme

Last year we enrolled the farm into a countryside stewardship scheme. The idea of the scheme being that instead of growing normal cereal crops like wheat & barley in our fields, we are growing different types of wildflower & grasses that will benefit and nourish wildlife.

Winter Bird Food – Our two smaller fields adjacent to our wooded areas have been planted with various small seed-bearing crops.
They have been providing important food resources for farmland birds over the winter (especially during the week of extreme cold before Christmas). We also have two feeding sites where we put out supplementary seed every week during this period.
The flowering plants also benefit insects including bumblebees, solitary bees, butterflies and hoverflies.

Legume Fallow – Our four larger plots have been sewn with a mix of 6 flowering species (including Ryegrass, Clover, Trefoil & Vetch).
This crop is to provide food for farmland wildlife, again providing pollen and nectar for pollinators including bumblebees, solitary bees, butterflies and hoverflies. It will also provide invertebrate chick food for farmland birds around the sown fallow between April and July. Currently we have a number of resident Hares and Muntjac that enjoy the cover that the grass provides.

Below are the two supplementary feeding sites:

Badger Updates

After scarcely being seen on our trail cameras over the winter, the badgers have awoken from their semi-hibernation and have started doing their evening rounds of the farm, polishing up the peanuts in the various feeding points Richard leaves out for them daily. Oh and the occasional tasty worm too!

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