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The World of Beneficial Insects
The World of Beneficial Insects
Date and Time: Tuesday 23rd September 2025 10:00 till 1:00. Lunch included.
Location: The Bistro, Woodhouse Farm The Bistro, Woodhouse Farm OX10 6PT
https://w3w.co/also.cube.relishes
About this Event: Have you ever wanted to know more about the largely hidden
world of insects on your farm? Then this Christmas Common Farmers workshop is exactly
what you need.
Kirk Mason will introduce you to the fascinating world of insects and their vital roles in our
ecosystems - with an emphasis on food production. The morning begins with a session on
insect biology and an overview of several major beneficial groups, followed by a question
and answer session. During the lunch break, you’ll be able to enjoy conversations while
exploring specimens under the microscope. The afternoon session focuses on the ecosystem
services beneficial insects provide on farms and practical ways to encourage their presence
on your land, ending with an interactive Q&A.
BASIS and NRoSO points available
Life After the Facilitation Fund
Life After the Facilitation Fund
Date and Time: Tuesday, 21 October 2025 at 12:00.
Location: The White Hart, 28 High Street, Nettlebed, RG9 5DD
About this Event: After an amazing five years of working together, we are now in our last year of funding through the Facilitation Fund. Defra has made it clear that there will be no more Facilitation Fund after May 2026, when our grant aid ends. So, what next?
This meeting will be an opportunity to exchange ideas and to hear from the Central Chilterns Cluster about how they are making a Community Interest Company structure work for them. Might it work for Christmas Common? Please do come along, enjoy a pub lunch, and start planning for the future of the group.
Booking is essential, and a menu for you to choose from will be distributed nearer the time.
Ongoing Projects
Ongoing Projects
Tony Powell is continuing with our summer breeding bird surveys. There are six more member farms having surveys this summer and we are steadily building our knowledge with regards to how different species are using cluster farms.
Following our successful Dutch Elm Resistant Tree planting project, we are embarking on a project to find out more about the distribution of the White Letter Hairstreak butterfly across the cluster. This rare species depends on flowering elm and so we are starting by checking locations with Wych Elm. Mike Wall (Sandplover Ecology) will be leading on this project for us and arranging to visit farms with Wych Elm.
Previous Events
Previous Events
Wild Bee Workshop and Safari
Wild Bee Workshop and Safari
On the 14th July we met with Marek Nowakowski to have an excellent session at Greenfield Farm. Marek taught us all about bees and their supporting ecology and then we went out to find some interesting bees and other inverts on our ‘safari’. Andrew Ingram's chalk grassland habitats, though past their best as a result of the hot weather, were looking wonderful and there was plenty to talk about.
Our thanks to Rebecca for preparing the barn and helping to coordinate the visit.
Deer Survey Workshop
Deer Survey Workshop
On the 8th July we met at Woodhouse Farm, Ipsden to discuss the results of the Deer Survey funded by the Chilterns Natural Landscape which covered many of the farms in the Cluster. A well attended meeting included many stalkers and landowners and was led by Harry Howard-Jones and Tom Cackett who analysed the survey results and presented them along with some recommendations which were keenly debated.
Our thanks to Robin Hart for hosting us.
Butterflies on our farms
Butterflies on our farms
Members of the cluster met in Ipsden on 9th April to discuss and learn about butterflies.
Butterflies are arguably our best loved insects, valued for their beauty, cultural significance and as indicators of a healthy ecosystem. The Chilterns has at least 39 species of butterfly, but how many can you recognise and where would you go to find them? What species might you have living on your farms and in your woodlands? What can you do to help them?
Peter Cuss, butterfly expert and volunteer with Butterfly Conservation’s Upper Thames Branch, can help with all these questions (and more) and will be with us to share his wealth of knowledge on local butterflies. Peter is also the Species Champion for White-Letter Hairstreak which we hope will eventually benefit from the 200 elms you have planted on your farms this winter. Peter will provide a short talk on the lifecycle of the White-Letter Hairstreak and how to survey for them.
Woodland Workshop - 5th November 2024
Woodland Workshop - 5th November 2024
21 members met at Cholsey Farm Ibstone and enjoyed a classroom workshop in the morning led by Cora Pfarre, Head Forester at Maydencroft and Alison Cross.
Topics covered:
Why and how should you manage woodland.
Felling Licences, Woodland Management Plans, Grant schemes
Woodlands in the Chilterns Landscape
Threats and Diseases
Overview of Woodland Creation including opportunities for woodland creation, growing the right tree in the right place, grants and regulations)
We then took a tractor & Trailer ride to see both established and young woodland and looked at a potential site of woodland creation and saw Ash dieback control.
Allerton Project visit - 29th April 2024
Allerton Project visit - 29th April 2024
The Allerton Project researches the effects of different farming methods on wildlife and the environment, sharing the results of their research through advisory and educational activities. This is undertaken on their 320-hectare demonstration farm based in Leicestershire.
Their work covers natural capital accounting, agri-environment schemes and regenerative farming systems. From soil and water, to woodland and environmental habitat that increases biodiversity, they aim to build farmland resilience. Their research teams collaborate with other research organisations and help co-supervise numerous PhD and MSc projects.
Visitors to the project include businesses, policy makers, non-government organisations, regulators, farmers, advisors, students and schools.
An all day visit to the Allerton Project
An all day visit to the Allerton Project
Where: Loddington, Leicestershire LE7 9XE - Transport to be arranged
Where: Loddington, Leicestershire LE7 9XE - Transport to be arranged
Farm Mapping - February 2024
Farm Mapping - February 2024
Land managers and advisors gathered at the CCB's offices in Chinnor for a hands-on workshop on Land App. This cloud-based mapping tool empowers users to plan, manage, and analyze their land with ease. Led by Alison and Ted, the session provided a perfect introduction for beginners and a helpful refresher for those already familiar with the platform.
Participants learned how to:
Use the Land App's features to streamline land management workflows.
Access a wide range of base maps and data layers to inform their decision-making.
Utilize templates for tasks like SFI/CS scheme creation and crop planning.
By the end of the workshop, attendees gained the confidence to navigate Land App and unlock its potential for their farms.
Event - November - Clean Air Farming
Event - November - Clean Air Farming
The agriculture sector accounts for 88%3 of UK emissions of ammonia, which is emitted during storage and spreading of manures and slurries and from the application of inorganic fertilisers. Excess nitrogen from farming practices can be emitted to the air as ammonia, can cause the release of the potent greenhouse gas nitrous oxide to the atmosphere contributing to climate change, and can be re-deposited onto soils and plants, and into freshwater. It can completely change the structure of plant communities by favouring more robust nitrogen-loving plants, such as common nettle, cow parsley, and old man’s beard at the expense of other wildflowers, and this in turn can impact on insect populations.
Nitrogen is expensive and no one wants to waste it, but what efficiencies can we secure to protect the environment and the pocket?
The event was led by Niels Corfield an independent farm advisor focussing on sustainable farming systems he designed this session to look at and discuss ways of reducing reliance on N and securing N efficiencies.
Event - October - Water Management in an Unpredictable Climate
Event - October - Water Management in an Unpredictable Climate
Kindly hosted by Crowmarsch Battle Farms we learned from representatives of ADAS about managing water on our farms from soil structure to slurry pit management, rainwater harvesting and management of farmsteads and sprayers etc.
We were lucky enough to see some great practical examples on the farm, visiting cropped areas and the newly erected sprayer facility with bio-wash etc.
Dung Beetles & Earthworms
Dung Beetles & Earthworms
Kindly hosted by the Nettlebed Estate
Kindly hosted by the Nettlebed Estate
Home of The Nettlebed Creamery, producers of amazing cheeses.
Around a dozen members met on a rather warm day (Thursday 7th September 2023) to be introduced to the fascinating, but vital world of dung beetles by entomologist and farmer Sally-Anne Spence.
She provided an enthusiastic and highly knowledgeable (and practical) introduction to dung beetles and earthworms and their importance to our soils and ultimately water quality.
We did some ‘classroom’ learning and then after lunch (which featured cheese from the estate and delicious home-grown figs) we took a look at the dung in a field that the dairy cows had recently been in, where we were taught how to survey a cow-pat and identify the various species of beetle.
Resources:
Grasses Day
Soil
Carbon
Hedgerows
Hedgerows
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