Planting trees for wildlife, environment and future generations

We're farming around about 800 acres. Ordinary arable farming where it's; wheat, barley, oil seed rape. In 2006 the agricultural waste regulations were coming in and we decided we'd get on that as a diversification.

So, we started looking into it and we built a plant here to process the agricultural plastic from that we franchised it out so we've got a network all throughout the country that supply us to process. We do tree guards, we do shotgun cartridges, we do chemical cans, fertiliser bags, anything that the farm will produce that's plastic we will take it in.

When we came here in 1988 this was a highly productive arable farm where in the late 70s it had all the woods and the trees ripped out and all the hedges. So, the last couple of years we've decided that we need to get hedges in, we need to get trees in, we need to get woods in, to get it back to where we think it should be for a sustainable future for farming. So, what we've done urm we've took the very worst of the land out. We've put approximately five hectares of woods in, three kilometres of hedges in so far. We plan to put more in there's 200 acres of grass, permanent grass gone down. We also have a stream that goes right through the centre of the farm with the track alongside it. So, we decided to put the woods on the south of the track, so when any shadows come from the woods it would be onto the track and not onto the crop over the dike. We also have a big reservoir on site and that's utilised for the recycling side of the business as well. So, we interlinked the reservoir with hedges to the new plantations of wood for wildlife tracks to go down. So, we can utilise the stream, the reservoir and the woods are all interlinked along with the permanent pasture we've put down. We've put about 200 acres of permanent grass down, we've introduced sheep, we've introduced cattle. That's the first time sheep and cattle have been on this farm for at least 60 years. So, they all come into the permanent pasture and if we have to take some of this pasture up we will do as part of the rotation but it'll be down for five or six years minimum anyway. Linked with all that is grass is a good carbon store trees are good carbon but we put the grass down for mainly for carbon as well.

So, we also put solar panels in to help power the plant because I do believe you know if you're recycling and then you're utilising the world's most valuable resource like fresh water and power you're not really truly recycling. So, what we're trying to do is to produce our own power, and the water we recycle all the water so we're not utilising good drinking water or power off the grid.

We're enhancing the farm for future generations, yes it's going to take a fair while to do it but you know the plan is to leave this farm better when we finish with it than what we received it. Not saying it wasn't right when we got it because it was it was a right farm for the right time but times have changed, so we're trying to get ahead of the curve. A neighbour, he put some trees in last year, and he recommended the MOREwoods scheme said it was very easy to talk to you people. So, we contacted you in the spring of last year and we found you're very helpful on the knowledge of what sort of trees to put in. And the application we found was very simple and straightforward and that's what we like simplicity straightforward.

If you're looking to improve your land with trees MOREwoods could be right for you. The Woodland Trust can help you design and plant a woodland from 500 trees upwards, over half a hectare or more. We'll visit and work with you to create a bespoke scheme to help deliver what you want. From shelter belts or field corners to an amenity woodland. We can supply the right mix of trees, tree protection, and cover up to 75 percent of your costs. If you're interested in creating or reinstating hedgerows then we can help with that too. MOREhedges can fund up to 75 of the cost of creating hedgerows with large trees planted at regular intervals. We'll also provide planting advice and guidance to help you get started MOREwoods and MOREhedges are funded by Lloyds bank.

For more information and how you can get involved head to the Woodland Trust website.