Our farm has miles of hedgerows, many of which were planted by Longley Farm founder Joseph Dickinson in the 1970s/80s. We run a long term cycle of hedge laying, aiming to lay each hedge every 15-25 years.

Hedges provide a living, thorny fence and are a valuable wildlife habitat. They are also a valuable carbon store, sequestering more per square metre than an average woodland.

As well as managing our existing hedges, we planted 2.3km of new hedgerows in 2022 and will be adding a similar amount in 2023 too.

Alongside every hedge, we leave a minimum of two metres, which is called a “field margin”. We’re currently increasing this around arable and silage fields to 6 metres, giving more space for wildlife and increasing carbon sequestration.

We also have various areas of nectar mix for pollinators, winter bird mix to provide a food source through the winter, and other similar areas which we tend to place in less productive areas of our fields. We see this as farming smarter, obtaining a Countryside Stewardship income for less profitable areas.

Soil is the most important element of any farm. We are working to improve the health of our soils by building soil organic matter, which also draws down carbon from the atmosphere. This involves baseline sampling and ongoing monitoring into the future.

We have over 60 acres of woodland on the farm, some of which is ancient oak woodland with lots of bluebells and wild garlic. We plan to plant another 14 acres by 2023, with a combination of shelter belts to provide protection for our animals, sweet chestnut coppice to provide fencing material in the future and wet woodland to extend this rare habitat in the local area.

Trees not only play a role in fighting climate change, but also provide wonderful habitat and are a source of timber product, from which we can make things.

We are converting 110 acres of land to herbal leys. These are a diverse mix of grasses, herbs and legumes, which fix their own nitrogen thereby removing the need for fertiliser, feed the soil with busy root activity and provide food for birds and pollinators.

Whether mown for winter feed for our animals or grazed directly, herbal leys are a valuable food source and an alternative to regular grass fields.

The River Dearne runs alongside a number of our fields and the rain which falls anywhere on our land all makes its way to the Dearne.

The Dearne Valley is home to a number of special habitats and is one of the last strongholds for a rare species of bird, the Willow Tit. In 2021, a series of local wetlands were classified as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (“SSSI”) by Natural England.

We are committed to minimising the impact of our farming activities on local waterways, by being careful where and when we spread manures, along with leaving buffer strips alongside all watercourses.

Having entered our first Countryside Stewardship scheme in 2017, we have expanded the area covered by Stewardship activities. The aim is to increase the area of unfarmed habitats (hedges, woodland, field margins and ground habitats) from the current 10%, to 20% within 5 years.

Farming is changing and now that we have left the EU, as a farm we see income from environmental schemes as a key part of being both profitable and sustainable.

At the farm we have two orchards which date back to the 1900’s. We have several varieties of apple, damson, pear and crab apple growing in these orchards.

In recent years we have planted Espalier apple trees in our gardens and in 2022 we also planted over 80 mixed heritage fruit trees alongside a public footpath, which will make a blossom avenue in the future. We use the fruit from our trees to make our apple juice available on the online shop each autumn.

We have a 105kW solar PV system on our farm building, generating electricty for use directly on the farm and excess is sold back into the national grid. We also harvest rainwater from most of our farm buildings, which is used for cleaning buildings and vehicles.

Ponds and other water sources are a key feature of a healthy landscape, providing drinking water for wildlife and a home for many species.

In 2021 we created 4 ponds in field corners, in a Natural England scheme to encourage Great Crested Newts.