About the farm: Alice and Max returned to Alice’s fam­i­ly farm five years ago. It com­pris­es 110 acres of mixed grass for hay­lage and a graz­ing flock of 280 ewes. They have been tak­ing on a regen­er­a­tive approach and would like to strate­gi­cal­ly inte­grate more trees across the farm. The farm has three wood­lands con­nect­ed to a SSSI and an orchard which was plant­ed in 2023. 

Agro­forestry ambi­tions: Alice and Max are keen to under­stand how an agro­forestry sys­tem could help pro­vide more shel­ter and fod­der amidst their rota­tion­al graz­ing sys­tem, as well as pro­vid­ing high-qual­i­ty tim­ber. They have rent­ed a small patch of land to a local mar­ket gar­den and would like to use this as an avenue to sell some of the fruit from their orchard.

About the farm:
Jake Free­stone is Farm Man­ag­er of LEAF Demon­stra­tion Farm, Over­bury Estate- a 1,565 hectare sheep and arable farm in Gloucestershire. 

Agro­forestry ambi­tions: Jake is cur­rent­ly explor­ing agro­forestry options and expand­ing cur­rent ideas in their per­ma­nent pas­tures- con­nect­ing orchards and hedges and pro­vid­ing sheep fod­der and shel­ter. Jake is inter­est­ed in expand­ing their area of fruit trees and explor­ing how to cre­ate a nature rich ​‘wet wood­land’ or ripar­i­an area. 

“I feel like I under­stand regen well, we’re doing it here, and now agro­forestry seems a log­i­cal step for­ward for the farm.”

About the farm:
Geraint farms a 1,200-acre sheep and beef farm in Wales with areas of upland. Geraint’s approach­es have shift­ed from focussing on mar­ket pres­sures to pur­su­ing his own envi­ron­men­tal aims and inter­ests across the farm (par­tic­u­lar­ly habi­tats for bird life). 

Agro­forestry ambi­tions:
Geraint has already plant­ed con­sid­er­able areas of hedges, brows­able tree rows and wet wood­land but would like to explore how Agro­forestry can diver­si­fy the busi­ness. Addi­tion­al­ly, Geraint would like to iden­ti­fy how trees can sup­port his sheep’s win­ter resilience by pro­vid­ing extra shel­ter and fod­der and how trees can cre­ate a last­ing, pos­i­tive lega­cy on the land.

“I’ve joined the agro­forestry group to explore the best way to inte­grate trees into my farm, and learn from oth­ers on the course, as well as the experts who we get to work with. It’s been great to share expe­ri­ences and learn­ing with like mind­ed peo­ple, I par­tic­u­lar­ly like the peer-to-peer learning”

About the farm:
Anna returned to her 478-hectare beef and arable fam­i­ly farm in Fife after study­ing a mas­ters in Inter­na­tion­al Law. Spe­cial­is­ing in eco­nom­ics, sus­tain­abil­i­ty and gov­er­nance, she hopes to utilise her the­o­ret­i­cal under­stand­ing of sus­tain­abil­i­ty to make prac­ti­cal changes to her busi­ness to secure its sus­tain­able future. 

Agro­forestry ambi­tions:
Anna is keen to explore how trees can improve the shel­ter and fod­der avail­able for their live­stock and how trees can be used in bound­ary agro­forestry as a means to enhance pub­lic access and safety. 

“I am active­ly seek­ing inno­v­a­tive means to enhance the resilience and pro­duc­tiv­i­ty of my farm whilst con­tribut­ing pos­i­tive­ly to broad­er envi­ron­men­tal and social goals. I believe agro­forestry can con­tribute to my aspi­ra­tions and so I am enjoy­ing explor­ing the vari­ety of ben­e­fits trees can have on agri­cul­tur­al prac­tices through this project.”

About the farm: Andrew owns and man­ages a 180 acre dairy farm in Pem­brokeshire. Pre­dom­i­nant­ly mul­ti-ley grass pas­tures and ripar­i­an woodland. 

Agro­forestry ambi­tions: For Andrew, agro­forestry could be a ben­e­fi­cial way of stack­ing diver­si­ty into his farm­ing sys­tem. He is keen to see how the cows could ben­e­fit from the micro-cli­mates and addi­tion­al fod­der pro­duced by tree rows. Andrew is also inter­est­ed in agroforestry’s poten­tial to pro­tect soil and rivers and is very open to a vari­ety of tree species and how they can help the farm become more self-sufficient.

“Hav­ing access to expe­ri­enced prac­ti­tion­ers and learn­ing along­side like­mind­ed farm­ers will be invaluable.”

About the farm:
Will and his fam­i­ly man­age a 200 acre arable and beef farm near Wrex­ham, North Wales. The fam­i­ly con­tin­ue their strong focus on soil health and are well prac­tised in direct drilling, under-sow­ing and hedge plant­i­ng. In fact, Will’s win­ter hob­by has become hedge plant­i­ng with his children!

Agro­forestry ambi­tions: Will is inter­est­ed to see how agro­forestry could fit in with the land he is cur­rent­ly rent­ing as well as the farm busi­ness and future farm­ing pol­i­cy in Wales. Will brings a won­der­ful pas­sion for farm­ing and fam­i­ly to the project.

“I’m thrilled to be includ­ed in this for­ward think­ing and ambi­tious group, and I’m so look­ing for­ward to learn­ing more about agro­forestry. I firm­ly believe that we should all be pro­duc­ing food in the most nature pos­i­tive as pos­si­ble, and I’m excit­ed to put what I learn over the next twelve months into prac­tice on my own farm.”

About the farm: Ruth and her fam­i­ly run an organ­ic live­stock farm near Dum­fries. They also man­age areas of wood­land, glamp­ing accom­mo­da­tion and have recent­ly put in a new pond for both their geese and local fau­na. Ruth is on a mis­sion to achieve a har­mo­nious envi­ron­ment between the land, live­stock and wildlife and she has already plant­ed around 500 trees, includ­ing an orchard and new hedges.

Agro­forestry ambi­tions: For Ruth, incor­po­rat­ing var­i­ous agro­forestry sys­tems is a log­i­cal and an excit­ing next step for their organ­ic, regen­er­a­tive farm. Ruth is inter­est­ed in inte­grat­ing more fruit and nut trees and con­tour plant­i­ng which she hopes will improve water infil­tra­tion and shel­ter dur­ing storms, as well as help­ing drought proof oth­er areas on-farm.

“Inte­grat­ing trees into our farm­ing sys­tem brings so many ben­e­fits and oppor­tu­ni­ties. Both for our farm’s pro­duc­tiv­i­ty, for the wel­fare of our live­stock, for nature as well as for wider envi­ron­men­tal issues.”

About the farm:
Jen­ny is man­ag­ing her family’s 400-acre farm and is work­ing to tran­si­tion it away from inten­sive mono­cul­tures. Over the last four years, Jen­ny and her fam­i­ly have sown herbal leys, and mixed species wild­flower grass­lands, plant­ed 800 tree wood­land and 3.5miles of native hedgerows. In 2024, the fam­i­ly intro­duced a native 100% pas­ture fed aberdeen angus suck­ler herd. Jen­ny has a range of agro­forestry plant­ed already, such as park­land roundels and an area of sil­vo-pas­ture with fruit and nut trees. 

Agro­forestry ambi­tions: Jen­ny is seek­ing to expand the sil­vo-pas­tur­al sys­tem and is explor­ing the intro­duc­tion of a ripar­i­an buffer along the riv­er. Addi­tion­al­ly, Jen­ny is con­tin­u­ing to extend their hedgerow plant­i­ng into large fields — to ben­e­fit bio­di­ver­si­ty and pro­vide browsing/​shade for livestock.

“Real­ly enjoy­ing the project so far, a great group of peo­ple from dif­fer­ent parts of the coun­try (very inspir­ing to hear their sto­ries). I’m real­ly excit­ed about stretch­ing my think­ing and the role that trees can play on our farm.”