Sustainable agriculture in practice

For more than thirty years the 1,000 hectare Cholderton Estate has been managed on the principle of evolving a sustainable method of farming that is compatible with the strictures of a modern highly competitive agricultural industry.

Farming, sustainability and wildlife
Sustainability embraces a concept not only of self-sufficiency but of working with nature rather than against it.  Consequently those areas of the Estate with high value for wildlife have been protected.  Large blocks of land have been reverted to chalk downland and the rest of the farm has been managed in a way that harmonises with the requirements of wildlife.

Organic farming enterprise
The estate is a thriving fully organic farming enterprise.  The animals are fed almost entirely on food that is grown on the Estate.  The operation is largely self-sufficient with most work being carried out in house including feed preparation, fertility building and weed control without recourse to industrial chemicals.  As a consequence the estate has created additional employment for local country people when such opportunities are becoming increasingly rare. 

Rare breeds at Cholderton Estate
Rare animal breeds with which the estate has been linked for over a century continue to flourish.The priority given to conservation means that many species of birds, which are declining in the wider countryside, are thriving at Cholderton together with populations of rare and threatened plant species.