KEIBA Awards 2021 – Commitment to the Environment – Winner

With environmental responsibility being at the forefront of our ethos and business practice, we wanted to expand this approach to the rest of our farm, creating a mosaic of habitats for the benefit of local flora and fauna, whilst providing a unique setting for our guests to enjoy.

We have worked with my son’s new business venture, Habitat Regeneration, to enhance and create habitats across the farm and have carried out the following works:

• The first step was to convert the farm from arable back to a less intensive grass system, which ensures green cover all year round. This grassland is managed through summer cattle grazing and winter sheep grazing.
• We have created a new pond and restored five ponds across the farm to provide foraging and breeding habitats for Great Crested Newts. This was funded by the Stour Countryside Partnership who act as the delivery group using developer contributions to help improve GCN habitat across the county.
• We have also created a winter wader scrape within one of our grass fields to provide enhanced habitats for red list species such as snipe and green sandpiper.
• A large part of the farm has been converted to a Countryside Stewardship Scheme with just over 50 acres of very low intensity grassland, 8.5 acres of winter wild bird crops and 3.5 acres of enhanced pollinator mixes.
• Alongside this we have installed four owl and kestrel boxes within mature oak trees which overlook our low intensity grassland parcels, creating the perfect habitat for the barn owls, tawny owls, little owls and kestrels that call the farm home.
• We have also incorporated a small wildlife walk for guests to utilise which passes our market gardens, beehives, a bug house and a bird hide with feeding station.
• In line with these enhancements, we have worked alongside the Kent Wildlife Trust carrying out winter wild bird counts and subject to breeding success in spring 2022 we will also be involved in a ringing programme for owls and kestrels.

On the horizon:

• The next project is to start connecting up existing hedgerows and to create a small copse on the farm. We are looking at working with Ashford Borough Council who have made a pledge to plant trees for the queens Green Canopy Project. This project will create additional wildlife corridors across the farm, will provide nesting and foraging habitats for farmland birds and will help to sequester carbon.