The bright beauty of Sheepdrove in winter with sparkling frosty mornings, crisp sunny days and staggering sunsets. And yes, that is a @forestedgetipis tipi on the courtyard ready for this weekend’s @sheepdroveweddings Open Event.
An update from the wild heart of Sheepdrove Organic Farm! We have returned a cluster of farmland, woodland and scrub at the heart of the farm completely and entirely to nature to create another ecologically diverse wildlife habitat in our mosaic of valuable ecosystems.
We hope rewilding will promote biodiversity, restore natural processes and draw down carbon and have put in place a robust monitoring programme to measure outcomes. Beetles and spiders are ideal indicators of environmental change and this beautiful mini movie filmed by the very talented Verity White @wild.carbon shows naturalist Stuart Corbett taking baseline surveys invertebrates so we can compare the changes over the years💚🌱♻️
Welcome to the wild heart of Sheepdrove Organic Farm.
We have Verity White and her collaborators @wild.carbon to thank for this beautiful introduction to our rewilding project at Sheepdrove.
Our journey into nature conservation and organic regenerative agriculture began in 1995 when we took over 2,000 acres of industrially farmed land on the Lambourn Downs. Organic and regenerative farming practices have fundamentally enhanced and enriched the natural world of Sheepdrove's rolling chalk downland but we felt it was time to go further and rewilding is the next step on our journey into nature recovery.
We have returned a cluster of farmland, woodland and scrub at the heart of the farm completely and entirely to nature to create another ecologically diverse wildlife habitat in our mosaic of valuable ecosystems which includes species-rich grassland, ancient oak woodland, chalk downland, dew ponds, young native woodland, scrub and hedgerows, reedbed system with lake and wildlife ponds, plus certified organic, mixed rotational farmland with conservation practices such as sowing wild bird seed mixtures, creating beetle banks and wildflower margins, and regenerative agriculture methods including legume-rich herbal pasture for grazing livestock and growing wheat and beans undersown with clover.
We hope rewilding will promote biodiversity, restore natural processes and draw down carbon and have put in place a robust monitoring programme to measure outcomes, with Nick Adams and associates from TN Wildlife conducting the ornithology, butterfly and predatory invertebrates surveys, Cath Shellswell, the farmland advisor at Plantlife, undertaking the botany surveys, and Verity White and Wild Carbon measuring the carbon offsetting.
Our rewilding project relies on natural regeneration; we have no plans for mass tree planting. Since 1995 Sheepdrove has planted thousands of trees and miles of hedgerows and we’ve had quite enough of plastic tree guards. This time it is nature who
Sheepdrove is harvesting heat from the earth with a ground source heat pump. A buried network of pipes will capture this geothermal heat and use it as renewable energy to power the central heating and cooling systems in our sustainable events venue. The whole system is powered by renewable electricity from our two wind turbines and 900 solar panels reducing on-site emissions to net zero.
The ground source heat pump will replace a 148kW eco green gas LPG heating system with zero carbon renewable heating. This will save 49tCO2e of Scope 1 emissions, whilst reducing overall emissions by 39tCO2e.
Nineteen 150 metre long trenches have been cut 1.3 metre deep into our chalky soil into what was a field of rye beside the farm buildings and the market garden. Once the trenches are filled in, the field will go back to being part of our organic mixed farm rotation to be sown as required with oats, rye or a clover rich herbal ley mix for grazing so no productive agricultural land will be lost.
Into these deep chalky trenches pipes were laid and buried. When operational, brine will circulate through the piping and collect geothermal energy to heat and cool our farm offices and the conference, wedding and events venue housed in Sheepdrove’s eco friendly green building.
We’ve been working with Tom Beckett of Better Century and Bob Roddy of Amber Heating and would highly recommend them to any other events venues wishing to cut their carbon footprint to or towards carbon zero.
Sheepdrove is continually working to improve the sustainable management of energy, water, soil and other natural resources not only in our conference, event and wedding venue but on the farm and in the farm stays. The ground source heat pump is the latest step on a journey to carbon net zero that includes two wind turbines, 900 solar panels, a reed bed grey water recycling system, and a rewilding project.
@better_century
@sustainableweddingallianceuk
A post in praise of pigs!
Lavender, Lacey, Lucy and Louise are delighted to move to the cool shade of their wooded summer home.
Pigs are nature’s ploughman and key workers in our rewilding project at Sheepdrove.
Like their ancestors the wild forest hogs and boars, these woodland rootlers work the ground with their snouts to unearth worms, other invertebrates and of course roots, including the thick, deep roots of docks and thistles which any gardener will tell you is quite an achievement.
Their rootling makes space for wild flowers and shrubs and trees to seed and spread and creates habitat for solitary bees and other ground nesting insects.
Our pig procession is a good excuse for a parade of pigs in sculpture from all around the farm - on our entrance gate, in our central courtyard and in the pole barn. All our farm artwork is conceived and created by sculptor and designer Patrick Bateman of HB Studios.
www.hbstudios.co.uk
Setting up the boat house for a summer barbecue
