Our cluster spans a diverse patchwork of farms in Suffolk's unique claylands but together we are on a journey towards realising our ambition to create joined up solutions, at scale, across more than 10,000ha of prime farmland.

Our farmers grow quality food on land that also links some 450km of hedgerows and 675ha of woodlands which together make thriving wildlife corridors. We aim to plant wildflower margins, enhance grasslands, restore ponds and improve habitats for threatened species from butterflies and dragonflies, bats and farmland birds to pollinators and rare arable plants.

We also aim to explore greener fuels and renewable energy options to lower the carbon footprint of our farming operations. We aim to farm in ways that deliver for our businesses and our communities, balancing local and global in our interconnected world.

We have been supported by DEFRA through the Countryside Stewardship Facilitation Fund for 3 years. This funding enabled us to deliver farmer-to-farmer knowledge sharing and develop skills in farmland ecology and biodiversity. As a result we in a better place to appreciate, support and promote our on-farm natural capital and share our knowledge on a one-to-many basis.

We are busy restoring and caring for any farm's most vital natural asset: the soil. By ploughing less, keeping plant roots in the ground for much of the year, using livestock skillfully managed by mob grazing, composting and employing organic regenerative practices we will be working to build soil structure, retain moisture, boost fertility and sequester carbon.

Improving soil quality doesn't just grow better food and help the land.

As a collective our work aims to reduce the flow of pollutants into the 20km of waterways that crisscross our fields by planting wildlife friendly buffer strips of grasslands and trees.

We aim to use the best methods we can to deliver just the right amount of vital nutrients into the gound where plants can use them in an optimum way. And by taking care of what goes into the ground, we help to look after the air above.

About

Sharing our farmer-to-farmer knowledge and experience:

the Suffolk Wool Towns Farm cluster way.

In association with…