The final meeting under the CSFF grant was held at Slough Hall with a series of reports and reflections. The meeting provided a great opportunity to celebrate how the cluster has developed and strengthened over the 3 years of the CSFF facilitation.
As our lead farmer John Pawsey reminded the cluster why working together is more powerful than working alone, and invited everyone to celebrate the shared journey.
As facilitator Helen gave an overview of the aims, strengths and weaknesses of CSFF support for clusters.
John Harris gave his treasurer's report detailing how the CSFF funding and attendant opportunities reinforced the value of the cluster to its members.
Beth reported on the current situation for SFI and the future of payments for working with nature on farm.
Juliet summarised the fabulous results of the CSFF-funded surveys for pollinators, saproxylic beetles, ponds and the rare arable plants project. This work reinforces the CSFF-funded training that members have enjoyed during the grant period. Juliet explained how the rare species represent key facets of the cluster's natural capital. They are a key part of the Suffolk Wool Town Farms' USP. See the Projects section for more details.
Colin and Phil demonstrated the cluster website and showed members how this will become the communications and information hub for the cluster, championing the peer-to-peer knowledge sharing fostered by the CSFF support.
All received a well-deserved round of applause.
We finished the meeting with an excellent farm walk. Members discussed the challenging spring conditions for the organic rotation on the farm, and we were joined by Anita Stone who has been responsible for various projects on the farm's woodlands. As ever where woodlands are concerned, we discussed means of mitigating the effects of deer predation of the understory, woodland plant assemblage and all the life these plants support.
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Visit to Wild Ken Hill
