The Farm
We are always striving to keep our farming practices current and sustainable. In 2025 we have taken a significant leap in our sustainable farming journey by adopting the Uni-Moore and Sabre tine direct drill. Prior to this, we utilised a strip till drill, which was already a step towards reduced tillage, cultivating only narrow strips of soil where the seeds were to be planted. The direct drill takes this even further, allowing us to plant seeds directly into undisturbed soil.
This minimal disruption preserves the soil structure, enhances moisture retention, and protects the vital microbial life within, leading to improved soil health and more resilient crops.
We are excited to have our Pedigree Sussex cattle and Badger Face Welsh Mountain sheep now grazing our arable fields.
We establish diverse cover crops over the winter months, which these animals then graze. This practice offers multiple benefits: the cover crops protect the soil and capture nutrients, while the grazing livestock naturally fertilise the ground with their manure, trampling crop residues and improving soil structure.
This symbiotic relationship between our crops and animals is a key component of our strategy to reduce external inputs, improve water infiltration, and foster a thriving, living soil beneath our main arable crops.
The Sussex breed are an ancient British beef breed, that date back to the Norman Conquest, originating from the red cattle of the Weald of Sussex and Kent. Historically they were valued as powerful draught oxen, a testament to their incredible hardiness, docility and efficiency.
These qualities make them perfectly suited to a low-input farming system like ours. Sussex cattle are renowned for their ability to thrive on forage, converting grass and cover crops into high-quality beef without requiring significant concentrate feeds. They are robust, easy-calving, and known for their longevity and excellent maternal instincts. Their natural grazing habits, combined with their ability to put on condition from a diverse range of pastures, make them ideal partners in our regenerative approach, helping to manage cover crops and improve soil fertility naturally.
At Filston Farm our Sussex herd carries the "Hope House" prefix. This prefix was used by our Great Uncle and is named after his farm at Sandhurst, where he farmed in partnership with our grandfather. We restarted the herd name in 2020. Our aim with the Hope House Sussex herd is to continue their lineage as a testament to traditional, resilient farming, playing a crucial role in building the health and productivity of our land for generations to come.
To further enhance our integrated farming system, we have embraced cutting-edge technology with the introduction of NoFence GPS collars for our cattle and goats. We were fortunate to secure a Farming in Protected Landscapes (FiPL) grant for this initiative, recognising its significant potential to benefit both our agricultural productivity and environmental stewardship.
These innovative collars allow us to create virtual fences via a smartphone app, eliminating the need for traditional, labour-intensive physical fencing. This technology is instrumental in facilitating our mob grazing and conservation grazing strategies. With NoFence, we can precisely control where our Sussex cattle and goats graze, moving them frequently to new areas.
This concentrated, short-duration grazing encourages even pasture utilisation, helps to trample down cover crops and plant residue, and naturally cycles nutrients back into the soil, significantly boosting soil health and biodiversity. Furthermore, it enables us to direct grazing pressure to specific areas for conservation purposes, protecting sensitive habitats or encouraging particular plant species, all without the visual impact or logistical challenges of permanent fences. This flexibility allows us to manage our land with unprecedented precision, ensuring our livestock are not just part of the farm, but active contributors to its ecological regeneration.
Our holistic grazing approach integrates the livestock's movement and impact into the overall farm plan, ensuring long recovery periods for the pastures. By bringing a high density of animals onto smaller areas for short durations (mob grazing), followed by extended rest, we maximise the beneficial impact of their grazing and manure. This not only builds soil organic matter and improves water infiltration, but also reduces reliance on external inputs by naturally fertilising the land and enhancing nutrient cycling.
We also help manage a conservation grazing project that focuses on using our Pedigree Sussex cattle, Badger Face sheep, and Cheviot goats. Their diverse grazing habits help to manage vegetation, prevent the dominance of aggressive plant species, and create a varied structure vital for invertebrates, ground-nesting birds, and wildflowers. Trampling from the animals helps to "reset" areas, create bare ground for seed germination, mimicking the natural grazing patterns of wild herbivores that historically shaped our landscapes.
