Farming in Firle
Farming in Firle is incredibly important. Farming gives the landscape its appearance and is responsible for its enduring vitality. The distinctive local topography and geology require a patchwork of mixed farming which supports a diversity of farmland habitats.
Farms across Firle Estate aim to balance food production and environmental management. The two are interdependent because the health of the land and the nature of local produce are inseparably linked to farming methods and land management practices.
Stronger Together
Firle Estate is farmed by several principal let farms with several ancillary tenancies and grazing lettings. An undeniable strength of the region has been the stability of the Estate’s farming tenancies, which often reach back three or four generations. Indeed, the principal farming families arrived on the Estate between 1910 and 1935 and jointly steward the farmed landscape. This constancy has defined the fabric of the Estate’s rural communities due to their irreplaceable contribution.
The Estate is very proud of the continuity in its farming structure. The tenant farmers are the backbone of the Estate. They are a group of vital importance to the entire region with a proud and successful heritage. As a result, the Estate has total faith in its farmers to continue to deliver its farming objectives.
Strong Stewardship. Clear Objectives.
Farms across the Estate are managed through Environmental Stewardship and Countryside Stewardship schemes and farmed independently through agricultural holding agreements.
The distribution of stewardship targets includes a belt designated ‘restoration of species-rich grassland’ along Firle Escarpment. Adjacent areas fall into a pattern of ‘mixed stocking on grassland’, arable fields with ‘florally enhanced margins’ and perimeters of ‘arable reversion by natural regeneration’.
The scope of the designations demonstrates the scale of the Estate’s multiple priorities: conserving the chalk grassland along the Firle Escarpment, striking a balance of productivity, improving soil restoration and targeting ground nesting and farmland birds.