How we Farm
Earth Trust Farm is uniquely positioned to demonstrate how farming can meet multiple needs in our changing landscape. As managers of significant farmland in Oxfordshire, we have the opportunity to demonstrate how agriculture can balance profitability with environmental stewardship.
We’re adopting regenerative practices that prioritise the health of the land, its ecosystems, and the people who depend on it.
We’re implementing proven approaches and techniques that improve soil health, enhance biodiversity, and maintain farm productivity, while creating public access to green space and protecting valuable heritage.
By doing so, we aim to show how regenerative farming techniques work in practice, develop sustainable income streams that support nature-friendly farming, contribute to species recovery and habitat creation, and share our learning journey with others.
This practical experience puts us in a unique position to engage diverse audiences – from local communities to farming practitioners – in understanding how farming can work differently.
Why Regenerative Farming Matters
Farmers today face an unprecedented set of challenges: the need to feed growing populations, reduce their environmental impact, and adapt to changing weather patterns. At Earth Trust Farm, we’re tackling these challenges by embracing methods that support both productivity and the planet.
Our approach is guided by five key principles of regenerative agriculture:
- Minimising Soil Disturbance: reducing tillage and chemical inputs to enhance soil structure, biodiversity and hydrology.
- Keeping the Soil Covered: protecting the soil from rain and sun by maintaining a cover of growing plants all year round.
- Maintaining Living Roots in the Soil: feeding the soil through the growing of cover crops when the soil would otherwise be bare.
- Maximising Plant Diversity: diversifying our crop rotation by growing beneficial plants between crops.
- Integrating Livestock into the Farming System: improving soils health by grazing arable fields when crops aren’t being grown.
We’re working closely with our farming partner, Emmets of Drayton, to implement these principles and monitor their impact on the farm’s productivity and biodiversity. By using techniques proven by pioneering farmers, we’re putting theory into action to show what’s possible for the future of farming.
As these principles are put into practice, visitors will likely observe a transformative landscape emerging, with diverse legume fallows restoring soil health, vibrant herbal leys enhancing biodiversity, strategically planted cover crops protecting and enriching the ground, and flower-rich margins creating vital habitats that buzz with pollinator activity.
By sharing what we learn, we’re helping everyone – from local residents to policymakers – understand how farming can better serve both people and planet.
A New Vision for Farming at Earth Trust
Agriculture is in a time of rapid change, and we’re evolving our farm to meet the moment.
From autumn 2024, we’re making significant updates across our farming operation, including:
- Partnering with a new farm contractor and adoption sustainable crop rotation
- Changing our grassland management approach to enhance biodiversity and soil health
- Securing new environmental stewardship agreements to support wildlife recovery.
- Improving visitor infrastructure and heritage protection to connect people with the land.
- Testing new business models that balance profitability with environmental stewardship
These changes reflects our commitment to demonstrating practical solutions for the challenges farmers face, from market pressures to policy shifts and environmental crises.
Demonstrating Change
Within this wider transition, our Species Survival Fund project is transforming Bessie’s Field into a showcase of regenerative agriculture. This 26-hectare site is a space to
- Create new habitats including: flower-rich pasture, wildflower margins, hedgerows and fruit tree lines
- Integrate food production with species recovery through agroforestry
- Monitor biodiversity improvements through regular species and habitat surveys
- Engage local communities and farmers in learning about these practices.
By combining sustainable farming and habitat creation, the project highlights how agriculture can play a critical role in reversing biodiversity loss while remaining productive.
Why Now? The Urgency of Change
The UK’s farming sector is at a crossroads. With agriculture covering 70% of the country’s land, it’s clear that how we farm will shape the future of our environment, food systems, and communities. Farmers face growing pressures:
- Market volatility and rising costs are threatening livelihoods.
- Policy reforms demand new ways of working.
- Wildlife and soil health are in crisis, and the effects of climate change are becoming harder to ignore.
At Earth Trust Farm, we’re showing how regenerative approaches can offer hope—providing practical tools to address these challenges while protecting what matters most.
Follow our farming progress and updates as we share in the journey.
Sign up to the Earth Trust newsletter or visit us to see these changes in action.