North East Cotswold Farmer Cluster CIC

PROJECT BACKGROUND

The North East Cotswold Farmer Cluster CIC was set up to increase natural capital and ecosystem services across the region via partnership working, delivering landscape outcomes that by far exceed the sum of the individual holdings acting on their own. It will be achieved by the following objectives:

1. A facilitation plan
2. On-farm knowledge exchange events
3. Consolidating mapping, raising awareness and hosting workshops for regional environmental and natural capital surveys and initiatives
4. Appraising and supporting the design and delivery of holistic approaches to multi-holding natural capital expansion, connectivity and management
5. Public engagement with the NE Cotswold Farm Community

AIMS & APPROACH

Many commercial and charitable environmental projects operate in the NE Cotswolds. However, it is too frequently a minority of land parcels that participate and initiatives that tend to be ‘top-down’ in approach. The North East Cotswold Farmer Cluster (NECFC) intends to galvanise a landscape-approach, and through knowledge exchange, encourage farming neighbours and contemporaries to participate.

The farmer cluster will:

• Write and publish a facilitation plan
• Host knowledge exchange events including a focus on:
  • ELMs: SFI & LR (with pilot representatives)
  • Technique specific events e.g. hedgerow management, cover cropping, heritage grains, Treescapes Project
  • Natural Flood Management (NFM), Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG), carbon markets
  • Farm tours/walks (focusing on regenerative agriculture)
  • Annual general meetings, quarterly ‘socials’ and farm cluster facilitation conference
• Raise awareness of regional environmental and natural capital surveys and initiatives:
  • Integrate stewardship schemes and surveys into NECFC Land App ‘map of maps’ including Glorious Grasslands
  • Wet grasslands and hydrology with ECP/WOx/AONB/EA
  • Healthy Ecosystem Restoration Oxfordshire project (HERO)
  • The Gloucestershire Regenerative Environment and Agriculture Transition project (GREAT)
  • Oxfordshire Treescapes Project
  • Supplementary feeding sites, elm trees, bird box installation etc. (*A project focused on this is underway - watch this space for a podcast*)
  • Soil carbon baselining (*A project focused on this is underway - see the video below*)
  • Evenlode Catchment Partnership (ECP) water quality/NFM logging database
• Support the appraisal, design and delivery of holistic projects and multi-farm natural capital expansion, connectivity and management - both by co-ordinated linkage of existing and renewed schemes (Countryside Stewardship) or enabling innovation via alternative schemes (FiPL projects, SFI, Landscape Recovery pilot project, private investment, corporate investment etc). This will involve harmonising methods and mapping, and recruiting landowner engagement. There is a great need for NFM, BNG, carbon and water quality to be across-boundary and not siloed into specific farm holdings. The Cluster CIC can be commercially driven to secure finance for environmental outcomes, specifically supporting and convening for:
  • Landscape-scale Soil Organic Carbon baselining assessment and mapping across 38 farms on 15,000 hectares (ha) to ISO14064-2 standards (see above).
  • Landscape Recovery pilot proposal for river restoration in the lower Evenlode, Glyme and Dorn with multiple contiguous landowners and key stakeholders (application in progress).
  • Flood meadow creation, restoration and enhancement up the Windrush valley in collaboration with FWAG SW, National Trust, Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust and Floodplain Meadows Partnership. NECFC has experience with members, the Evenlode Smarter Water Catchment and historical projects (scoping stage).
  • Stream restoration and habitat creation project across 5 farms from Sarsden to Lyneham (*This project is underway - see the video below*)
  • Supplementary bird feed project (see above).
  • Flying flock/herd enterprises across the NE Cotswolds, facilitating access to new land and investment, in response to growing interest with rapid uptake of arable reversion, leys and cover crops.

*Note to farmers - Find out more and get involved here*

PROJECT OUTPUTS

All of the above aims to achieve:

• A soil carbon baseline across 36 farms and 15,227 ha

• Improved survival of farmland winter birds, and supporting data
• Better habitat linkage along a stream with four farms at Lyneham in Oxfordshire

• A website and comms platforms for events, workshops and collaboration to support regenerative farming practices and improve Natural Capital in the North East Cotswolds

PROJECT PARTNERS Rothamsted Research Institute Natural England Carbon Quester on the carbon base-lining project