A view from the farm
In the Sustainable Farming Incentive pilot, we provided farmers with 3 different land management plan templates. Each template was developed through tests and trials. Farmer Martin Hole took part in the Cuckmere and Pevensey Levels test and trial. He explains how the vision for his farm, and the landscape in which he lives, has been supported by land management planning.
We asked farmers helping us co-design the Sustainable Farming Incentive to share their experience in a video diary. In this video, Michael Orchard gives us a tour of his livestock farm in the Peak District National Park. He shares the improvements he’d like to see come out of the Sustainable Farming Incentive pilot.
We're developing schemes that reward environmental land management. To make sure that those schemes work in practice, farmers and land managers across England are putting elements of those schemes to the test. It's one of the ways though which we're carrying out co-design. In this video, the North Cumbria Farmers Group share what they've been doing to help shape the future of our schemes.
Slurry contains lots of nutrients including nitrates, phosphate and potash as well as a host of other things that can benefit soil health and support crop growth. It can, however, create significant pollution to our water and air. Through co-design, our team joined with a group of farmers, industry leaders and experts to explore the subject. In this post, we’ll share what we’ve learned and how we plan to support farmers so that nutrients from slurry aren’t lost, that any damage to our environment is reduced and farmers aren’t dependent on expensive artificial fertilisers.
In the Sustainable Farming Incentive pilot, we provided farmers with 3 different land management plan templates. In this video, find out how participants Liz and Bryan, used land management planning to prepare their farm business for the future.
Farm visits help us to better understand how farmers work and what’s important to them. In this post, I'd like to share what I learned during my visit to Hampden Bottom Farm in Buckinghamshire.
Farmers like Charlie are joining the pilot to help us make sure the Sustainable Farming Incentive scheme works in practice.
Farm visits are a useful way for us to understand the context in which farmers work and what’s important to them. In this post, I'd like to share what I learned during a recent visit to Challacombe Farm on Dartmoor.
If you want to encourage more of the right wild plants and insects on a group of farms, what parts of your farm should you target to get the best results? This is the question conservation scientist Dr Robert Hawkes explored with colleagues from the University of East Anglia, the Breckland Farmers Wildlife Network and Defra.
Some of our colleagues are also farmers. In this post, Ben Keene and Brian Longman introduce the Defra Farmer's Forum, the group which brings them together. They also share their stories. In the months that follow, we’ll hear from more farmers who either work in the Future Farming and Countryside Programme or support our work from their teams elsewhere in Defra.
