Farm Resilience Programme launches in Warwickshire - free support for your farming business
A go-to source of trusted external resources, organisations, and tools to support our rural community. Whether you’re seeking government guidance, industry expertise, health support, or training opportunities, these links connect you with the help you need.
FCN is a registered charity which offers pastoral and practical support to farming people and to the members of their families, as they seek to resolve their problems and difficulties. Volunteers run a helpline where calls will be answered in person from 7am to 11pm every day of the year.
Helpline number: 03000 111 999
Planning for the future can be a daunting process, especially in farming, where there is so much change. The internet has opened up a wealth of information, but for those who are not ‘computer savvy’ or who work alone, it can be difficult trying to ‘sort the wood from the trees’. The FarmWell website presents useful information to support you, the people around you and your farm business. Farming Community Network developed the platform to be easy to understand, and it’s designed to assist you with any issues you may be having on the farm. The FarmWell website contains lots of helpful information around topics such as succession planning, rural crime and farm safety.
Helpline number: 03000 111 999
R.A.B.I has been around since 1860 and is well established in the farming sector, providing help to those in financial difficulty. They offer financial support, practical care and guidance to farming people of all ages, including farmers, farmworkers and dependants. RABI strive to build personal relationships and will tailor their support to suit you. If they can’t directly provide what you need, they will do their best to liaise with other organisations and agencies on your behalf.
Contact number: 08082 819 490
The charity provides homes for farming families living in England and Wales who have to leave the industry, through no fault of their own, and who will lose their homes.
Contact number: 01926 620 135
Agrespect want to promote the countryside as a vibrant, tolerant and welcoming place for everyone, irrespective of gender, ethnicity or sexual orientation. They want to help LGBTQ+ people and their families understand that being different is something to be proud of. Being open about your sexuality shouldn’t be a barrier to leading a happy life and a fulfilling career in the countryside.
The Kenilworth and District Agricultural Society is a membership organisation which holds a series of social events throughout the year. The Society also organises the Kenilworth Show, which is held on the first Saturday of June near Stoneleigh Park.
Contact number: 07792 209 478
The Royal Countryside Fund gives grants to projects that help support the people who care for the countryside. It is supported by a unique collaboration of businesses working together to secure a sustainable future for British agriculture and the wider rural economy. So far, the Fund has donated £3.87 million in grants, supported over 87 projects across the UK and helped more than 64,000 people since 2010.
The Royal Agricultural Society of England is an independent charitable organisation dedicated to agriculture, land management and shaping a strong rural economy. Our activities include the Farm of the Future initiative, Pig and Poultry Fair, and we also celebrate the leaders of our industry in the annual RASE Awards, which recognise excellence in science and technology, the environment, land and business management.
Contact number: 02476 692 470
The Severn Rivers Trust is an independent environmental charity established to secure the preservation, protection, development and improvement of the rivers, streams, watercourses and water bodies in the Severn catchment, and to advance the education of the public in the management of water and the wider environment.
Contact number: 07817 622 919
Warwickshire Wildlife Trust aims to protect and enhance wildlife, natural habitats and geology throughout Warwickshire, Coventry and Solihull, and to encourage a greater awareness, appreciation and participation in all aspects of nature conservation and the environment. It manages 65 nature reserves spanning 800 hectares across Warwickshire.
Warwickshire Rural Watch is a free scheme to help combat rural crime in Warwickshire. Sign up to receive incident alerts and news for your area and access crime prevention advice and information.
Contact number: 01926 415 000 or 101
Led by young people, for young people, Warwickshire Federation of Young Farmers’ Clubs or WFYFC for short, is dedicated to members aged between 10 and 26. Young Farmers provides them with the opportunity to take part in a variety of competitions, learn new skills and to meet lifelong friends. You don’t need to be involved in farming to be a Young Farmer – just someone who enjoys rural life and has a willingness to be involved.
Contact number: 02476 696 588
Agricology is a communication platform for sustainable agriculture. The website covers material from fields and farms, and a resource library with over 300 technical guides, articles, and leaflets. They also have great YouTube content covering lots of topics, including herbal leys, agroforestry, cover crops and integrated pest management.
Practical information on soil management and links to soil research.
This website has a guidance and resources section, which has recorded webinars and PDFs that cover a huge range of topics on sustainable farm management and wildlife.
Control of Worms Sustainably (COWS) is a voluntary initiative aiming to provide the best available, evidence-based information to the beef and dairy cattle industries
The Groundswell YouTube channel has hundreds of videos from past years on all sorts of regenerative farming topics.
A network for farmer-led research to collaborate on new research ideas, learn from in-field trials and access funding for research.
This organisation was formed by a group of farmers who have come together to champion a way of farming which is sustainable and good for nature. The network is open to farmers and the public and is used to raise awareness of nature-friendly farming, share experiences and work together for better policies for food and farming.
Oakbank has put together an excellent playlist on their YouTube channel focussing on presentations on cover crops by a huge range of speakers from around the world. They also have a regenerative agriculture section on their website with links to some excellent talks by Dr Christine Jones, Joel Williams and Nicole Masters.
Their YouTube channel has recordings of previous years’ speakers with some fantastic talks from PFL, SA, Innovative Farmers and many more. There’s a long list, so to get you started, check out Warwickshire’s own Tom Tame talking about walnut production as a diversification on his farm.
PFL champions grazing animals on 100% pasture, helping to restore biodiversity and increase animal health and nutritional density of meat. Their YouTube channel has many useful videos covering a range of topics, including case studies, agroforestry, direct marketing, the economics of species-rich meadows and the benefits of restoring floodplain meadows.
Their YouTube page has some interesting videos on sustainable food production, including a comparison of heritage and conventional wheat yields and costs.
Carbon Clarity Guide:Although the Carbon Clarity Programme is not running in this area, the guide has some useful insights into practical steps you can take to reduce your farm’s emissions and improve your business resilience.
Environment glossary – The Royal Countryside Fund: Break free from environmental jargon with the Prince’s Countryside Fund glossary of terms
SFI Annual Health and Welfare Review
The annual health and welfare review is part of the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) offer. If you’re a livestock farmer, you can get funding for a vet or a team chosen by a vet to visit your farm and carry out a health and welfare review of eligible livestock. The review is designed to be primarily for you and will not be used for inspections or compliance.
The Soil Association’s webpage giving advice about low input farming practices has guides and information about herbal leys, cover crops, soil health, min-till, agroforestry and more, which are transferable from organic practice to conventional farming. Their YouTube channel has videos on agroforestry, reducing wormer usage and mob grazing, including a presentation by Rob Harvard on holistic grazing to boost farm health and productivity.
The SCOPS group was formed to develop sustainable strategies for parasite control in sheep, facilitate and oversee the delivery of these recommendations to the industry and ensure that new research and development is incorporated to refine and improve advice given to the sheep industry.
In the following YouTube video, Jim talks about the many benefits of leaving residual grass after grazing a pasture, including protecting and providing nutrients to the soil, increasing water holding capacity and allowing the grass to have an adequate recovery period.
Watch the YouTube video for advice on collecting good-quality faecal samples from sheep.
The group’s aim is to promote open discussion within and between grass-roots local farming groups to enable farmers to debate and consider the big topics such as post-Brexit market conditions, future farming grants, food supply chain dynamics, public education, new technologies and much more. An example of their newsletter is below.
This 43-page booklet is a practical guide for farmers and landowners on building resilience to extreme weather and adapting to a changing climate. Written by Sustainability West Midlands and Environment Agency.
There are useful guides to ash dieback. Signs of the disease include: leaves developing dark patches, turning black and eventually dying off; diamond-shaped dark brown lesions on the trunk where a branch joins; new shoots dying off; and a new growth further down the trunk (a sign of stress). The “orange rust” on the tree trunk that is commonly associated with ash dieback is actually another fungus, which in itself won’t kill the tree but is a signal of stress. There is also funding available for groups of landowners who need to fell trees due to ash dieback. Please speak to your facilitator if you are interested in applying for this funding.
Visit Buglife’s farming hub, which has information on caring for pollinators on your farm, including a guide on building your bee boxes for solitary bees. Buglife’s YouTube page also has some interesting videos, including one from Warwickshire’s very own Steven Falk on deadwood invertebrate conservation.
Mike Slater from Butterfly Conservation Warwickshire has written a very good book on Warwickshire’s butterflies, including habitat management and creation.
This Warwickshire Field Margin Assessment will help you carry out butterfly surveys on your land.
This website provides best practice guidance on how to help wildlife on farmland, developed by a partnership of some of the UK’s leading conservation organisations. Their YouTube channel also has case study videos from RSPB’s Hope Farm.
This booklet, written by Marek Nowakowski and Richard Pywell, is the distillation of a 20-year research partnership and provides farmers with the best available advice on creating and managing habitats for bees.
The resources on this page will give you an understanding of the hedgerow life cycle, together with useful tips for management and tools for assessing hedges to prioritise for management.
Download the Healthy Hedgerow survey assessment form here.
The latest report has been released, which includes an update on farmland wildlife.
A newsletter on landscape-scale species monitoring of agri-environment schemes, including a summary of the baseline survey. The recording sheet is also made available. Two information leaflets on rejuvenating hedges and relaxed cutting regimes for hedges are below:
A summary of some of the most common habitats you might find in an agricultural landscape, and some tips to consider when managing them.
A list of links to local Warwickshire wildlife groups.
This website has some useful fact sheets on managing woodlands for wildlife and advice on specific woodland species.
If you have any links you would like to add to this page, please contact Jane Hampson