[Colum Pawson]

Colum Pawson

14/01/2023 at 2:32 pm #80282

Regenerative Farming Opportunity

At Old Lands, Wales

A 200 acre mixed farm near Monmouth, including a historic farmhouse, associated buildings, and ancillary accommodation for WWOOFers, will be available for rent from March 2023.

The farming family who have lived there for three generations are retiring and do not wish to pass the farm on to their children. The land has been farmed using relatively unintensive, traditional methods for decades. It has some good arable fields on the floodplain of the River Trothy, and mixed arable and pasture on gently sloping land to the west. Some fields still hold species-rich grassland, with Waxcap fungi and Wild Daffodils, and the arable supports Yellowhammers, Linnets, Field Woundwort and diverse Liverworts. 20 years of regenerative farming on the neighbouring Old Lands, run by ecologist Sam Bosanquet, have produced flower- and insect-rich hay fields and pastures, home to rare plants, insects and birds including Green-winged Orchid, Devil’s-bit Scabious, Large Meadow Mining Bee, 15 species of Dung Beetle, Tree Pipits and Grey Partridges. Old Lands would like the newly available 200 acres to be farmed using the principles of Agroecology, so that the species on the Old Lands fields can spread across the landscape and arable plants and birds can continue to thrive. The aim here, as at Old Lands, is to ensure that future generations benefit from our own good husbandry – just as we at Old Lands have benefited from the careful stewardship of previous generations – by slowing down the way we farm, restoring and nurturing the land and its inhabitants, and looking for ways to put back more than we take out.

If you are potentially interested in renting this farm, and would like to be informed of the farm tenancy as it comes up, please email your contact details to clare.oldlands@gmail.com.