Farming

The Defra announcement on the immediate pause of the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) will have caused concern amongst farmers who were planning how to make use of SFI in the near future, but this need not put a pause on your nature-friendly farmi...

Georgie Bray, RSPB Hope Farm Manager, talks us through some of the plans for commemorating 25 years of of nature-friendly farming at Hope Farm

25 years ago, the RSPB bought Hope Farm to demonstrate and research nature-friendly farming techniques. Its an honour to be able to look back on the history of our ownership and reflect on what has been achieved in the last quarter of a century. In this blog, I’ve taken a few moments…

Guest blog by Joe Llanos, Senior Policy Officer, RSPB

After a year of big upheaval in UK politics, and coming in the midst of more unpredictable weather and a flurry of controversial farming announcements, it’s not surprising that the publication of the UK Government’s ‘2024 Food Security Report’ last December flew under the radar. But this report was packed full of data and evidence shedding light on…

The annual Oxford Farming Conference in January brings together farmers, policy makers, scientists and many others from the agricultural, rural and food sectors. This year, RSPB Chief Executive Beccy Speight chaired a discussion on the business potential of nature-friendly farming.  

The discussion explored the challenges facing farmers, the different benefits of nature-friendly farming and what more needs to be done…

Guest blog by Andrew Gouldstone, RSPB Ecologist

Grasslands can be important habitats for breeding wading birds such as lapwing, redshank, snipe and curlew, and whilst some rushes (Juncus) in these swards can be beneficial, their suitability for breeding waders can diminish if rush cover becomes too dominant.

Image: Adult Eurasian curlew standing in long grass on moorland. Jake Stephen (rspb-images.com)

Managing rush, primarily…

Join us for Hope Farm webinars on herbal leys and wildflower management to benefit farming and wildlife - as part of our 25th Anniversary Celebrations! This year, we will be hosting two webinars in February and March, on wildflowers and herbal leys, ...

Duerden Cormack, Monitoring Assistant at RSPB Hope Farm, summarises the key findings of the core monitoring of breeding birds, butterflies, and bumblebees carried out at Hope Farm during the summer months of 2024.

After last year’s changeable weather this year has at least been predictable - it was constantly cold and wet! Seemingly endless drizzly mornings made it difficult to plan surveys and I was concerned that I…

Advisory Manager for RSPB Scotland Chris Bailey tells us about the culmination of the Corncrake Calling project. which has been essential for helping Corncrake and other wildlife, while bolstering the unique culture of rural Scottish communities.

Join RSPB at Oxford Farming Conference, where we will be hosting a 'Building Resilience through Nature Friendly Farming' breakfast session on Friday 10 January

North-West Wales has many special habitats including wet grasslands, fens, soft cliffs, sand dunes, maritime grasslands, and lowland heaths which are home to numerous rare and endangered species. All these habitats require specific grazing regimes to maintain favourable condition. Find out how farmers and conservation organisations have been working together through a nationwide species conservation project called Natur…

Agriculture Advice Manager Richard Winspear provides some thoughts on things you can be doing over the winter months to support wildlife through the cold as well as planning for the year ahead.

A team of research scientists from the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology are working with the RSPB at Hope Farm to understand which types of field margin (e.g., grass versus pollen and nectar) support a higher number of species of moths, butterflies, and spiders, whilst also providing better protection against pesticide spray drift. To do this we a trialling DNA methodologies and approaches in three different ways.

Ahead of world leaders gathering on the international stage at COP 29 later this year, Joe Llanos hears from farmers on the ground who are leading the way with nature-friendly and climate-resilient farming.

Autumn is a busy time for many, and some of the environmental tasks on the farm can be spread through the autumn and winter months. But if you are sowing new habitats, it is often important to find that sweet spot when the ground is still warm, but moisture is present or forecast.

Below are some top tips for helping and enjoying wildlife over the next three months:

• If cutting hedges, doing up to 1/3 of your hedges between…

On 25 June, the sun came out. Finally. Just in time for a team of dedicated staff from the RSPB to head off to Lannock Manor Farm to set up our show stand for Groundswell - the regenerative agriculture festival. Offering a huge range of talks, activities...

RSPB Volunteer, Alex Mackenzie, writes a summary of Hope Farm’s Technical Webinar on Carbon-friendly farming, chaired by Dr Rob Field. It featured insights from Dr Jenny Bussell, Soil Scientist at the Allerton Project; Sophie Arnold, Hope Farm Assistant Manager; and Clara Robinson, Hope Farm project manager.

Why the Focus on Carbon?

Over the past century, human activities such as fossil fuel consumption and land…

Today’s blog by Duerden Cormack, Monitoring Assistant, gives us the latest results of the winter bird counts at Hope Farm, Cambridgeshire.

The winter of 2023/24 has been exceptionally warm and wet with just a couple of days of freezing conditions. In fact, this has been the wettest winter we have experienced at Hope Farm since we began farming here in 2000. This has made my job of choosing suitable survey days quite…

Chris Bailey, Advisory Manager for RSPB Scotland tells us about some of the work happening in Scotland to secure the future for waders 

The evocative call of the curlew has echoed across Scotland for generations, but these much-loved birds are at risk of being lost from our landscapes. Since the mid-1990s, their numbers have dropped by 60% in Scotland and they are thought to be disappearing faster across the UK than anywhere…

With a General Election now announced, we are calling for the Westminster government to support farmers and restore wildlife to our countryside

Summer is generally the season to let wildlife habitats on the farm do their thing and enjoy seeing the wildlife that makes use of them. Agricultural advice manager Richard Winspear sets out some top tips for helping and enjoying wildlife over the summer months

Our farming teams around the UK really look forward to the opportunity to chat to visitors to our stands at various events over the summer. It’s a great chance to share knowledge, talk through ideas and find new opportunities to work together for the benefit of farm wildlife. Here’s a brief round up of where you can find us over the coming months.

Clara Robinson, Carbon Farming Project Manager takes a look at the emerging results from her work looking at on-farm carbon calculators

Find out what you can do during spring to help wildlife on the farm with some top seasonal tips

RSPB NI have been working in partnership with the Dairy Council Northern Ireland (DCNI), its member organisations and the Nature Friendly Farming Network (NFFN) to develop a series of practical measures that enable farmers to enhance biodiversity on their land, creating positives for both the farm and the environment.

Duerden Cormack, Monitoring Assistant at RSPB Hope Farm, summarises the key findings of the core monitoring of breeding birds, butterflies, and bumblebees carried out at Hope Farm during the summer months of 2023.

This year will be memorable for me as my first year of surveying at Hope Farm. Starting in this role in January it has been great to watch the farm come alive as the seasons have progressed and it has been a…