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A view from the farm

Watch Episode 2: Land management plans and the Sustainable Farming Incentive pilot

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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.

Video: Michael Orchard, livestock farmer, on the Sustainable Farming Incentive pilot

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.

Video: The North Cumbria Farmers Group

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: making the best of it 

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Slurry spreading in fields, Shaftesbury

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.

Watch Episode 1: Land Management Plans and the Sustainable Farming Incentive pilot

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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. 

Bigger, better, more joined-up conservation on farms

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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.

The farmers who work in Defra

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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.