Agents in £3.5m milestone
A Shropshire based land agency is celebrating its 100th successful Entry Level Stewardship Scheme, bringing in £3.5m in annual payments for their clients.
Balfours has successfully surveyed and brought to fruition Stewardship agreements on 10,000 hectares, worth thousands of pounds each to clients in payments.
Partner Peter Wright said the team was delighted with the milestone. "It demonstrates both farmers' willingness to accept the environmental challenges laid before them by DEFRA and the revenue that makes Stewardship a serious player as a farm enterprise in its own right," he said.
Peter, based at the firm's Craven Arms office, continued: "It is also pleasing to see that as a local firm we are having a large and beneficial impact on the countryside in Shropshire and bordering counties as a result of our work developing schemes on behalf of clients."
The 100 ELS applications submitted by the firm have brought 8734 hectares under management agreements. Farm size ranges from 60 to 800 hectares with each one making a valuable contribution to the protection and enhancement of the countryside.
Balfours applications have resulted in: 315km of hedgerows managed to increase nesting sites and winter feed supplies for birds; 27km of buffer strip created, to protect hedgerows and trees from the effects of fertilisers and pesticides - sown to grass mixes to provide habitats for insects, butterflies and sites for ground nesting birds; 997 trees growing in the middle of arable and grass fields protected by eliminating the use of pesticides and fertiliser on land beneath the canopy.; 570 hectares significantly reduced fertiliser usage, to decrease the levels of nitrates in water.
The team has also completed 25 Higher Level Scheme applications, where an even larger environmental impact can be achieved.
Applications covering nearly 1,000 hectares have been submitted resulting in 10km of hedgerows being planted and 7Km of historic hedgerows being restored.
A range of different habitats have been created on 97ha to attract wading birds and lapwings.
Farm business adviser Trevor Sheard said: "We have developed schemes for clients which meet the environmental targets set by Defra. Now it is rewarding for all to see the results of this work coming to fruition.
"When we develop a scheme, each farm landscape and each farm business is unique and we are very consciousness to marry the needs of the business and employ the compatible tactics in choosing the options.
"It is no good having wonderful hedgerows full of birds if the business is unprofitable. It is possible to embrace both aims, but it requires a little unconventional thinking."
Picture: Balfours environmental team: Katie Morris, partner Peter Wright, farm business adviser Trevor Sheard and Jonathan Wright.
