The Arun to Adur Farmers Group is a farmer lead, self-funded group, made up of 32 farmer members covering a continuous area of 26,000 acres in the South Downs National Park. Ever increasing, the membership has been growing since beginning in 2015. Together, the group aims to enhance the environment that we are custodians of through collaboration, whilst still farming productively and profitably.
So why would a farmer want to be part of the Arun to Adur Farmers Group?
The main advantage of working together as a group is that small ideas can quickly become landscape scale projects; when adopted throughout all our members we can make a real difference to achieve a common goal. A great illustration of this is the group’s project to maintain farmland bird populations. As a collective, the group applied for funding through the Farming in the Protected Landscape Scheme and now 300 bucket bird feeders are spread along the downs with 10 tonnes of bespoke bird food being distributed annually. This supports populations of Yellowhammers, Corn buntings and Linnets, all of which are on the red list of threatened species.
Sharing what works, what doesn’t work and even the odd bit of kit sometimes, means together, as a farming community, we can support each other. Being part of a group provides a great platform for peer-to-peer learning, both within group meetings, farm walks and our everyday communications through social media groups. We are lucky to have a lot of support from our partners, to enable us dream big. For example, we have investigated and assessed the condition of the chalk soil throughout the group, creating a baseline dataset for members to compare against, in a Soil Health Project developed in partnership with S. Woodley Crop Services and Southern Water.
A farmer’s group is perfectly set up to act as an interface for farmers to make connections with local organisations, businesses, local government and vice versa. As well as communications, training can be bespoke and focused on topics which are chosen by the group, be it soil workshops, information on a new funding stream or species ID.
As a collective, we have a louder voice to promote the wonderful work that farmers are carrying out every day, to farm sustainably, look after the environment and feed the nation. We engage regularly with the local community to educate on the fantastic effort being carried out in the local area, be it through our annual joint Open Farm Sunday, individual school trips around member’s farms, our interactive ‘Meet the Farmer’ signs or at our show stand.
Most importantly, the group is inclusive, sociable and welcoming to all.
How could I get involved with the Arun to Adur Farmers Group?
That’s easy! If you farm on the South Downs between the River Arun and the River Adur and are interested in joining the farmers group, please do get in touch at info@arun2adur.co.uk for more information. If unfortunately, you are outside our area, please do drop us an email anyway and we can point you in the direction of your local group or maybe inspire you to set up your own, if one doesn’t exist in your area just yet.
If you don’t have a farm, but would still like to be involved, head over to our social media channels and follow us for more information on upcoming public events and news.