Category: Agriculture

  • New Woodlands

    By The Bevis Trust In | May 19, 2016

    We have some steep north facing slopes on the farm that are gradually being taken over by encroaching bracken. Azulox has been phased out for spraying bracken and the slopes are too steep for machinery. Even with heavy grazing or hoof pressure there is no realistic cost-efficient way of controlling the bracken and we are…

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  • Hide Building

    By The Bevis Trust In , | May 12, 2016

    We are busy planking up some of the larch that Nick planted over 30 years ago. It’s great to be able to use our home grown timber on projects such as the new hide.    

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  • Rewilding and More

    By The Bevis Trust In | May 10, 2016

    I attended a conference titled ‘Re-wilding Dorset’ last week. I stayed overnight with Bevis Trust Trustee Kate Hall, whose husband Tim is Farm Manager on the Cranbourne Estate. This estate formerly had a shoot based on farmed gamebirds but recently Lord Cranbourne has decided to switch solely to wild indigenous Grey Partridges. Whatever one’s views…

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  • Farm Payments and More

    By The Bevis Trust In | May 3, 2016

    We’ve just completed our Single Farm Payment application. Some people think farmers are rolling in it, and who knows, maybe the barley barons in the east are doing very well. Here in Wales, the story is very different. About 15 years or so ago, the farm payments switched from headage payments (paying per head of…

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  • Habitat Creation

    By The Bevis Trust In | May 3, 2016

    Over the weekend we saw the first dipper on the farm. This engaging little bird was not on our species list and the fact that it has now appeared can most likely be due to the beavers creating the type of habitat favoured by the dipper. We have also had a whimbrel passing through recently, though…

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  • April

    By The Bevis Trust In , | April 28, 2016

    30 April 2016 I like April, it’s like a strip tease in reverse. The farm is down to its bare bones after the winter, everything is visible. And then we get a few sunny days and the trees put on their first delicate leaves, like gossamer underwear, with sunlight dappling through them. We lamb in…

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  • The Bevis Trust

    By The Bevis Trust In | April 25, 2016

    It’s taken several years to get this far with the Bevis Trust. Finally we have created a ‘starter pack’ of Trustees and registered a Not for Profit Company and opened a bank account for the Company (which took a mere three months). What has taken the time has been developing the vision of where we…

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