Conservation - what are we doing?

What Are We Working On?

We have a few projects ongoing on the farm to help wildlife restoration and conservation, all of which are in conjunction with the Farming in Protected Landscapes Programme. The programme is part of DEFRAs Agricultural Transition plan and is designed to:

  1. support nature recovery
  2. mitigate the impacts of climate change
  3. provide opportunities for people to discover, enjoy and understand the landscape and its cultural heritage
  4. protect or improve the quality and character of the landscape or place

Our Meadow

Our 3 pods are situated in the 5 acre dry stone walled meadow. This land was previously used to graze sheep, like may other fields you will see around the area, everywhere is very green! This is lovely but it doesn’t provide a very good habitat for wildlife.

To improve the diversity, in Summer 2023 we will be planting it as a wildflower meadow with seeds sourced locally from an already successful meadow in neighbouring Sideburn. So instead of just grass, of which there are already about 14 different species already identified on site, there will be species such as yellow rattle, Eyebright, Meadow Buttercup, Red clover and Autumn Hawkbit to name a few.

Astonishingly 97% of wildflower meadows have been destroyed since WWII. By creating a meadow we hope to help increase the number of pollinating insects (an of course our bees will love it), predators and birds in the area. It will provide shelter for Hares, Field mice, ground nesting birds such as Curlews, hedgehogs and bats. And not only that, the extensive root system that the flowers have helps to reduce the amount of carbon in the air – so everyone benefits.

Little Middop Farm Conservation

Conseervation - what are we doing?

Wildlife corridor

Along the top edge of the Meadow we have planted over 600 native hedgerow plants to create a wildlife corridor, which will provide shelter and food for nesting birds and small mammals. We planted each one by hand, so it was a bit of a family effort! We have Hawthorn, Blackthorn, Dog Rose, Hazel and Hornbeam.

Little Middop Farm Conservation

Conservation - what are we doing?

Ancient Woodland Restoration

In 2022, when we fist looked into what we could do to conserve and regenerate the land we have. We invited the Woodland trust to see if we could plant some more trees along our little brook which runs in an adjacent field to the Meadow. The lovely lady came to look at the area which again used to be grazed by sheep. In the short time in which we had taken the sheep off the land she discovered that we had looks of old and native species growing in the woodland, starting to re-emerge because they were given the chance to. We have English Oak saplings, Native English Bluebells and Pignut which have made an appearance so far. To help aid the natural regeneration of the woodland areas we have fenced it off so sheep cannot access it anymore and we will allow it to grow as it should. Both the Woodland Trust and ourselves are excited to see what pops up from under the soil. The Woodland we have is already home to bat, birds and brown owls – which you can see on summer evenings as you pass by

Please share our journey with us!

All of our projects are very new and need time to establish but we would love to share our journey with you so we will keep our page up to date with new pictures of what we have found and how we are progressing .

Please check back to see how we are getting on!