So, soon 20% of our farm will be given over to wildlife habitats. This will make us more efficient and enable us to carry more stock. How come? Thread....

Very steep areas that we can’t access safely on the quad will be fenced off. This will make our work quicker and safer.

Fencing off the riverbank will enable us to be biosecure. At the moment we get a lot of visitors from off the fell, and one sheep brought us sheep scab last year. It cost a lot to treat all our flock for it. Also, our sheep won’t be able to wander.

Gathering will be easier because new fences will help us to move sheep quicker.

With smaller areas subdivided up by wildlife areas we will be able to rotationally graze more of our land. This will build soils and make it more productive. The wildlife areas will also act as shelter belts in bad weather.

Of course it will also make the land more suitable for the wildlife that lives here, including the pearl bordered fritillary butterfly, red squirrels and otters. We have rare trees and plants too.

The grass will be more productive when being grazed rotationally, and so ultimately we should be able to keep more sheep on 80% of our land than we can currently on 100%. Jobs a good un.

Finances- I should add we get £440 per hectare for the fenced off areas for 5 years and a capital grant for about 50% of fencing costs in our countryside stewardship scheme- so over time the whole idea finances itself.