Tyers Hall Farm, our mixed farm on the eastern side of Barnsley and home of our pedigree Jersey herd, was recently recognised as a finalist in the Yorkshire Agricultural Society’s “Tye Trophy” award for conservation.

The whole Longley Farm business is built around the principles of a sustainable economy, and Tyers Hall Farm in particular has a long history of making space for nature in the farmed landscape, ever since Joseph Dickinson established a large scheme of hedgerow and woodland planting in the 1970s. In recent years this has accelerated, with entry into two Countryside Stewardship schemes; these include bird and pollinator habitat areas, field margins around the majority of arable fields and an extensive programme of hedgerow management. 

We are really proud for Tyers Hall to be recognised in this way and we aim to progress further in such competitions in the years to come. The farm is always seeking to improve habitats, both to enhance connectivity across the farm for the wildlife species who also call it home and to improve shelter for our grazing cattle, who are now moving around the land more widely as part of a rotation focused on soil health. This winter we will be planting 4 hectares of woodland shelter belts, along with another 1.5km of new hedgerows. We will also continue our annual hedge laying works and run our annual hedge laying competition, which was well attended in 2022, its inaugural year. We truly believe food production and nature conservation can coexist, a belief which we continually seek to demonstrate in practice.

Special mention goes to Chris Harrap for coming up with the theory, and to Paul Robson (pictured) for making it work in practice.