Sustainable Resources

Harnessing Solar

The trust has strong ecological and sustainable beliefs so when it came to assessing how much energy as used on site, it was decided that renewables should be investigated. Solar energy was the clear way to go in terms of becoming fully self-sufficient in energy. We are proud of being one of the first to generate and use solar energy in the area. The solar panels are situated in some of the fields on site as well as on the rooftops of the buildings. We set the panels at a height that allows our sheep to graze underneath them. In hot weather the panels provide shade for the sheep and, in return, they mow and fertilise the grass. Our total capacity is 4Mw and during favourable weather conditions we are able to power our entire site and export excess electricity to the grid.

Sourcing Water

Another part of our site management involved the abstraction of water via 4 bore holes on the estate which is is filtered, sterilised and chlorinated. It is then used site wide for potable drinking water and hygiene purposes. We supply the dairy processing factory which is managed by Yeo Valley Organic with mains, hard and soft water, chlorinated to different levels as required. Our Water Processing Unit will manage up to 300,000 litres of water every day.

Managing Rainwater

We know that UK soils store around 130 trillion litres of water, more than contained in all UK lakes and rivers combined. From ensuring our field margins are strong, to leaving large swathes of land to permanent pasture, measures are in place across the farm to increase water retention and decrease soil erosion.