Using Regenerative Principles to Enhance Your Farm Business and Environment

November 27th and 28th 2024

Farm for the Future

With funding from the Royal Countryside Fund, Pasture for Life are delivering the Farm for the Future programme through a series of business and environmental workshops aimed at supporting farmers and land managers/owners to improve their resilience and prepare for agricultural policy changes. The programme is part of Defra’s Future Farm Resilience Fund (FFRF) Scale Up Phase.

This Workshop

During this unique two day workshop we will work with participants to:

• Identify the challenges facing the sector and their individual business
• Contextualize the range of potential solutions to these challenges
• Explore and demystify the principles of agroecology, regenerative agriculture and holistic management
• Summarise their own context
• Consider their financial goals
• Highlight the role of gross margins, net margins, cash flow and benchmarking, sharing and examining real figures from case study farms
• Discuss alternative ways of looking at a farm business and the issues within
• Face change and succession with more clarity
• Be more entrepreneurial – looking at key growth stages and the use of a regenerative business model canvas
• Look at the concept of enterprise stacking and the role of joint ventures
• Identify and prioritize the environmental assets on their farms
• Pinpoint the challenges and barriers to enhancement
• Highlight how diversity and an enhanced farm ecosystem can lead to improved business performance and resilience
• Dig into the concepts of adaptive management
• Explore ways of measuring and monitoring environmental assets and change
• Review the current range of public and private funding opportunities and how to engage
• Look beyond their farm boundaries, considering landscape or estate scale collaboration
• Seek further information and support
• Draft a next step action plan

Farm Visits

We will also spend time on both days out on farm looking at the new regenerative agriculture demonstration at the RAU (450 acres being farmed by regen pioneer Ed Horton), the GREAT Zero Dig Project (led by FWAG and Zerodig Earth) and a visit to Good Small Farms in Stroud (run by Eric Walters).

The Facilitators

Jonty Brunyee is a tenant at Conygree Farm, a 73 hectare organic and diverse National Trust farm in the Cotswolds, and an agroecological consultant and mentor. He is the Founder/Facilitator of the Regenerative Agriculture Accelerator Programme in the Cotswolds, a Founder/Director of the Emergent Generation youth network, and a Founder/Steer of the North East Cotswolds Farmer Cluster. Prior to this he was Head of Sustainable Farming and Food Systems at FarmED, a senior lecturer in farm business management at the RAU and a Director of Pasture for Life. Jonty is a Nuffield Farming Scholar.

Russ Carrington is a coach, mentor and facilitator, working with farmers and their families, agricultural organisations and landscape scale initiatives to help them through periods of transition towards regenerative practices.

He has worked with farmers and land managers across the UK, Ireland and parts of Europe. He previously managed Pasture for Life, working to support farmers adopting better grazing and livestock management through certifying and promoting 100% pasture-fed meat and milk. He also has first-hand experience of setting up and managing livestock farming enterprises having established the new regenerative farm on the Knepp Estate adjacent to its area of rewilding.

Food and Accommodation

The workshop will run from 9.30 to 5.00 on both days. Refreshments and lunch will be provided. You may like to stay in Cirencester or on site at the RAU (please let us know) on the Wednesday night.

Eligibility

Any farmer who is, or has been, in receipt of BPS, can attend free of charge*, even if you have already participated in a programme run by The Royal Countryside Fund.

All participants will become a member of The Royal Countryside Fund’s Farm Resilience Network and gain access to a bank of resources and ongoing support. You will also benefit from a year’s free membership to Pasture for Life.

Further Information

Please contact [email protected] for more information.

A more detailed agenda and joining instructions will be circulated one week before the event.

*subject to having not engaged with any other Farm for the Future funded projects. The RCF will check this via your SBI number.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Royal Agricultural University, Stroud Road, Cirencester, United Kingdom