Supporting Regenerative Agriculture

12th June 2023

Acorn have been supporting a local conservation charity, the Bellhurst Nature Conservation Trust, for over a year now.  This Trust aims to manage farm and woodland in an environmentally responsible way and move towards regenerative agriculture.

The Trust manages over 2,000 acres scattered over the High Weald Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, which includes about 200 acres on a farm and woodland near Acorn’s office around Etchingham in East Sussex.  On Tuesday this week the Acorn team met Jason Lavender, a trustee, on the farm to learn more about the work they do.

We were struck by how beautiful this area is, rich in wildlife including nightingales, 200 snipe, small tortoiseshell butterflies which feed off the nettles.   Jason showed us about half an acre rich in nettles which is up for discussion to become either an area for rare apple trees, a market garden for organic vegetables for a local farm shop or to be planted by organic willows for basket making.  Either way, planting will be done not by the traditional ploughing that turns the soil, but by direct drilling which keeps the soil healthy and enriches its biodiversity, as this is the primary emphasis for the farm.

This farm has moved from being organic to becoming a regenerative organic livestock farm.  This is achieved by introducing mobile planned grazing “Mob grazing” which is short duration, high intensity grazing where the cattle move on to the next area after a day or two by way of moving the electric fence.  The benefits include:

• Allowing the grass a longer recovery period which increases the biodiversity of the soil.
• Improving the soil’s fertility by the cattle treading in their manure into the land so gives it a better water holding capacity, thereby reducing erosion.
• Healthier cattle, as they are designed to eat grass not grain, and better husbandry by keeping the cattle outdoors for as long as possible in the winter limiting infections from the barn such as pneumonia.
• Lower costs for the farmer, as this system uses less hay/supplementary food, fewer vets bills and cuts the need and expense of removing all the dung from the barns and buying expensive fertilisers
• Removing the need for costly stock fencing around every field.

We are looking forward to visiting the woodlands on our next visit and to learn more about regenerative woodland management.

For more information about Acorn’s relationship with The Bellhurst Trust please read our blog on Acorn's support of biodiversity projects.