Environment

Judith Tooth meets a group of Norfolk farmers sharing ideas and expertise along the River Glaven

Cluster farm group is better for landscape – and for business

It’s a beautiful winter’s morning in north Norfolk where members of the Glaven Facilitation Fund Group have gathered for their latest meeting.

Today, they are learning from Ollie Martin from Groundswell about his experience of regenerative farming in Hertfordshire and how it might be adopted in the Glaven valley. Meanwhile, Ed Bramham-Jones from Norfolk Rivers Trust is explaining soil erosion and the grants available for sediment traps.

The group is one of more than 100 across England, with several in East Anglia, including those based around the rivers Wissey and Wensum in Norfolk, and on the Felixstowe and Shotley peninsulas in Suffolk, each bringing together farmers and other land managers to improve the local natural environment at a landscape scale. The idea is that by working together they can deliver more for soil health, water quality and wildlife than they could achieve as individuals.

East Anglia is home to a quarter of the world’s rare and special chalk streams. The River Glaven is one of them: just 10 miles long, it rises from tiny headwaters in lower Bodham, with the main river beginning just below Selbrigg Pond where three streams combine at the outfall. It meets the sea behind the shingle spit at Blakeney Point.

The River Glaven and its tributaries support a remarkable wealth of wildlife, according to the River Glaven Conservation Group – whose founder members include farmer Robin Combe – with an array of plants, invertebrates, birds and fish, many of which are of key conservation concern.

Brown trout, bullhead, stone loach, European eel, three-spine stickleback and brook lamprey can all be found. In the middle reaches of the river, where it runs over a chalk bed, large drifts of river water crowfoot cover the water’s surface with white flowers in early summer, and white-clawed crayfish thrive.

Major threats to the river’s wildlife include fine sediment pollution linked to soil loss from arable fields, as well as barriers to fish migration and invasion by American signal crayfish.

Natural England’s Facilitation Fund pays for a facilitator and training costs for each group. Facilitator for the Glaven Group is Norfolk FWAG adviser Charlie Ennals, and her role is to listen to the group members and plan events based on the priorities in the Glaven valley highlighted by Natural England and other advisers working in the area.

“I support the farmers in the area by finding interesting training providers that are thought provoking and relevant to the area, and working with other advisers to highlight priorities and work more collaboratively,” she says.

The morning’s talks spark a lot of interest among the group. For Thomas Courtauld of Barningham Hall, hosting the session, the opportunity to bring together farmers associated with the Glaven to discuss problems and share ideas is the best part about it.

“Collaboration is the key,” he says. “The more we meet, the more we discuss, the more we see the scope of what we could do. Some of us might know more about a particular subject, some less so, but, by discussing it together, by going out in the field to see an example, a lot comes out of it.”

Charlie agrees: “I think one of the main achievements of the group is actually getting together regularly to talk about the problems in the Glaven valley, such as soil health and erosion, and also the successes. Farming can be so isolating and this group provides a space for neighbours – who would actually see each other surprisingly little – to be able to talk openly about issues around soil health, erosion, wildlife – and the weather!

Sharing best practice

“It’s difficult to measure the achievements but it is so important getting together to share best practice, support each other and promote changes where needed. Keeping up to date with new tech-

Rare habitat supporting a wealth of wildlife

Glaven Facilitation Fund Group

The group is three years into its fi ve-year agreement. Its 17 members cover 9,592ha. Key priorities are biodiversity and water quality.

Water priorities

• reduce sediment input into the River Glaven • reduce nitrate input to groundwater drinking source from Glandford • continue river restoration to the River Glaven channel and backwaters, such as buffer strips and sediment traps • improve soil health and organic matter content.

Priority habitats to be maintained, restored and joined include:

• ancient and native woodland • riparian habitats • arable fi eld margins.

Clockwise from above: The Glaven group’s meetings this year will focus on woodland management, invertebrates and rare arable plants. The River Glaven at Bayfi eld Hall The River Glaven headwaters Norfolk FWAG adviser and facilitator for the group, Charlie Ennals

niques or equipment can be particularly challenging, especially as different things work in different locations, soil types, crop rotations and so on, so to be able to bring in experts to run workshops and promote discussion about their specifi c situation is really useful.”

Does it make good business sense? Thomas thinks so: It’s diffi cult to quantify, but, in time, yes, I think it will. I think it makes good sense full stop. It encourages us to look outwards, to talk candidly … it can only be a benefi t. There’s nothing negative about it.”

Charlie is pleased with how the morning’s training has gone: “I found Ollie’s presentation very thought provoking. The focus on improving soil health in order to sequester carbon, reduce fl ooding and produce a high yielding crop while reducing inputs is really exciting. While the farm that he manages in Hertfordshire is using a no-till system that wouldn’t work in the Glaven valley, with its large areas of potatoes and sugar beet, the discussion around taking the principles of regenerative farming and adapting them to make it work for the farmers here was really positive.”

As well as today’s sessions on soil health and regenerative agriculture, the group’s meetings so far have focused on cover crops, pest control in crops, farmland bird identifi cation and managing water vole habitat. Charlie brought in Kings Crops, for example, to help the group learn about the value of cover crops in reducing the movement of soil and locking in nitrogen to be used by the following crop. With varying levels of experience in their use, they discussed different management techniques to fi nd best practice in the area.

Managing ditch banks

“At our water vole training event, the aim was to learn more about managing ditch banks to help water voles, making sure the banks are not too steep so that the voles can burrow into the sides, and cutting vegetation in sections, and one side at a time, to leave refuges for them.”

Training planned for the group in 2020 includes a woodland management event, an invertebrate workshop with a focus on farmland ponds and a rare arable plant session.

“I’m also planning to map the habitats and the sites at risk of soil erosion across the group’s area so we can see where the problems and successes are. This will help inform future agri-environment schemes so that effort can be channelled into areas that will provide most benefi t by linking up existing habitats and reducing the risk of erosion.”

Across the country, groups that applied for the fourth round of the Facilitation Fund are hearing the outcome of their applications. The next farmer cluster conference, organised by the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust and other partners, is planned for the autumn.

‘Joining up has put me ahead of the pack’

Group member Roger Combe farms at Bayfi eld Hall and his land runs either side of the Glaven valley.

“You certainly wouldn’t buy our land for agricultural reasons. The Glaven follows the line of the last glaciation and we’re basically farming on a gravel hillside, much of which would have been wood pasture and heathland up until the war. But it’s a beautiful bit of country and a very unusual bit of Norfolk with the river running through a tiny hilly wooded valley.

“I became a member of the group partly through altruism. I thought it was the right thing to do: we’re always told to cooperate and yet as farmers we’re the worst at doing that, but it’s much easier with half a dozen others involved to facilitate meetings and so on. And partly it was for selfish reasons, as it’s easier to access funding under the auspices of a group.

Out of production

“We used to have appalling run-off, we ploughed right up to the edge, we had outdoor pigs … now we’ve taken land out of production to keep the soil where it should be. We get paid for it through our HLS agreement, but we would have done it anyway. We’re on mineral soil here that doesn’t hold water, and, unless you’re careful, it all ends up at the bottom of the hill. So now we’ve got 40m grass strips and the banks have grown up, so if there’s an enormous rainfall event they hold water and the top soil back.

“Does it make good business sense? Yes, defi nitely. We’ve been kept afl oat by subsidies and we need to take part in the big schemes that are going to follow. Being part of a group puts me ahead of the pack in what might become a competitive fi eld.”