Nature Friendly Farming
Nature-Friendly Farming
Helping nature thrive while producing food sustainably in Perth & Kinross
Nature-friendly farming is an approach that works with natural systems to produce food while protecting and restoring the environment. It supports biodiversity, improves soil health, reduces greenhouse gas emissions, and builds resilience to climate change.
Key principles include:
- Working with nature: Using ecological processes like pollination, pest control, and nutrient cycling.
- Reducing inputs: Minimising synthetic fertilisers and pesticides.
- Enhancing habitats: Creating and maintaining hedgerows, ponds, wildflower margins, and woodland.
- Improving soil health: Through cover cropping, reduced tillage, and organic matter restoration.
- Supporting climate action: Sequestering carbon and improving water management.
Why It Matters
By adopting nature-friendly practices, farmers can:
- Help reverse biodiversity loss.
- Improve water quality and reduce flooding.
- Build healthier soils and more resilient crops.
- Contribute to Scotland’s net zero targets.
- Strengthen local food systems and rural economies.
Examples of Nature-Friendly Practices
- Agroforestry: Integrating trees into farmland for shelter, biodiversity, and carbon storage.
- Rotational grazing: Moving livestock to allow pasture recovery and improve soil structure.
- Wildflower margins: Supporting pollinators and beneficial insects.
- Low-input systems: Reducing reliance on chemicals and fossil fuels.
- Restoring wetlands: Enhancing water retention and wildlife habitat.
What You Can Do
Whether you're a farmer, land manager, food producer, or supporter of local food, there are many ways to take action:
On the Farm
- Create wildlife habitats: Hedgerows, ponds, wildflower margins, and woodland.
- Reduce inputs: Use fewer synthetic fertilisers and pesticides.
- Improve soil health: Try cover cropping, composting, and reduced tillage.
- Adopt agroecological practices: Crop rotation, mixed farming, and integrated pest management.
- Restore wetlands and riparian zones: Improve water retention and biodiversity.
As a Consumer
- Buy local and seasonal: Support farmers using sustainable practices.
- Ask questions: Find out how your food is grown and what impact it has.
- Reduce food waste: Plan meals, store food properly, and compost leftovers.
In the Community
- Join a local food network: Connect with growers, producers, and buyers.
- Volunteer: Help with habitat restoration or community growing projects.
- Advocate: Support policies and funding for nature-friendly farming.
Six Key Actions for Nature-Friendly Farming
These actions are practical, evidence-based, and suitable for farms of all types and sizes:
1. Enhance existing habitats
The best place to begin is by enhancing the wildlife habitats already present on your farm. If your land includes semi-natural habitats, such as unimproved grasslands, heathland, or moorland- you may not need to create new habitats. Instead, focus on maintaining and restoring these areas to ensure they are in good condition for wildlife.
To improve habitat quality and effectiveness, consider the following four key principles:
-
Better – Improve the condition of existing habitats. Are plant species diverse? Are habitat features like scrub, wet areas, or bare ground present? Could management practices be adjusted to enhance biodiversity?
-
Bigger – Expand existing habitat patches where possible. Larger areas support more resilient populations that can better withstand pressures like extreme weather or disease.
-
Connected – Link habitat areas using corridors of similar vegetation. Connectivity allows species to move freely across the landscape, reducing isolation and the risk of local extinctions.
-
More – Create new habitats to complement those already in place. Adding variety and coverage across the farm can significantly boost ecological value.
2. Maximising the wildlife value of field boundaries and margins
Field boundaries and margins are key wildlife corridors on farmland, offering vital connections between habitats and enabling species to move freely across the landscape. Effective management should focus on shielding these areas from agricultural inputs and fostering a diverse vegetation structure. Well-maintained hedges and ditches support rich wildlife communities that contribute to natural pest control and pollination.
Rotational management of hedges and ditches - avoiding cutting all in the same year - enhances flowering, fruiting, and shelter opportunities. It's crucial to avoid trimming during the main bird nesting season. Hedge height and the number of hedgerow trees should reflect the surrounding landscape: taller hedges and more trees suit wooded areas, forming continuous wooded corridors, while shorter hedges with fewer trees are better for ground-nesting birds in open farmland. Care should also be taken to prevent shading of sun-loving habitats.
Tussocky grass buffer strips are valuable habitats for insects and spiders and help protect field boundaries from agricultural runoff. These margins serve different ecological roles than flower-rich margins, and both are essential for biodiversity. Tussocky margins should be cut on a long rotation to allow undisturbed growth, while flower-rich margins typically benefit from annual cutting and removal to maintain their floral diversity.
Water is essential for supporting wildlife, and with thoughtful management, wet habitats can become some of the most biodiverse areas on farmland. These habitats might include farm ponds, temporary ponds, scrapes, or open ditches. Over the past 150 years, many farm ponds have disappeared, but restoring them offers a valuable opportunity to enhance the landscape for nature. In some cases, ponds have been re-excavated down to their original bed, successfully reviving aquatic plant species once thought lost.
High-quality wet habitats typically feature clear, nutrient-poor water that is free from pollution, creating ideal conditions for native wetland plants to flourish. Protecting water bodies from soil runoff, fertilisers, and pesticides is critical, as these pollutants can significantly degrade water quality.
Aquatic habitats also support key farmland species. Pollinators such as hoverflies rely on these environments to complete their life cycles, as do many beneficial insect predators. The abundance of insects emerging from wet habitats provides an essential food source for bats and birds, helping to sustain healthy farmland ecosystems.
4. Create or restore flower rich habitats
Flower-rich habitats play a vital role in supporting wildlife and enhancing populations of beneficial insects that contribute to farm productivity. Farmland can offer excellent conditions for native flowering plants - many of which rely on agricultural practices to survive, including rare arable species and wildflower-rich grasslands.
Using native wildflowers, ideally sourced from the local seed bank, is recommended. If that’s not feasible, agricultural varieties or native wildflower mixes can still provide significant benefits for farm biodiversity. A wide variety of flowering plants is essential to support diverse pollinator species. Many insects need access to pollen and nectar from early spring through to autumn, with food shortages often occurring at the beginning and end of the season. Research suggests that at least 2% of farmland should be flower-rich throughout the flowering season to adequately support pollinators.
Naturally regenerated weedy areas can be highly valuable for pollinators. Plants like White Dead-nettle, Ground-ivy, Cow Parsley, violets, and Dandelions are crucial early-season food sources for bumblebee queens, solitary bees, and hoverflies. Tall weeds such as Cow Parsley, Hogweed, Teasel, thistle, Ragwort, and willow herb often provide some of the best pollinator habitats on farms.
On low-nutrient soils, natural regeneration from the seedbank may yield the best outcomes for wildlife, especially where competitive weeds are minimal. Field margins with a long history of arable farming may host rare arable plants that benefit from annual cultivation. Flower-rich grasslands - whether naturally regenerated or seeded - can be maintained through annual cutting and removal. Where nutrient levels or weed competition make permanent wildflower habitats difficult to establish, short-term legume-based flower mixes can be used, though they typically need to be re-sown every 3–4 years. In grazing systems, herb-rich swards serve as the equivalent habitat.
5. Create seed rich habitat
For thousands of years, agriculture has created seed-rich habitats that many species of wildlife have adapted to rely on - particularly birds that have become farmland specialists. These habitats are especially important during winter, when natural food sources are scarce.
Traditional farming practices, such as weedier crops and varied crop rotations, naturally provided abundant seeds throughout the year. Features like winter stubbles, fallow fields, and weedy root crops were particularly valuable for overwintering birds. In mixed farming systems, livestock feeding practices - such as using grain and seed-rich hay - also helped supplement winter food availability.
Modern farming has become more specialised and efficient, which means these seed-rich habitats are now much less common. However, with intentional management, farms can still support wildlife that depends on seeds - especially declining species like Tree Sparrows, Yellowhammers, Grey Partridges, and Corn Buntings.
Seed-rich habitats can be created in several ways, including sowing wild bird seed mixes, leaving some crops unharvested, or retaining winter stubbles. These practices offer essential feeding opportunities that help seed-eating birds survive the colder months.
6. In-field management to support wildlife
Nature-friendly farming practices can enhance both productivity and profitability.
- Soil health is fundamental. Practices that protect soil structure and increase organic matter benefit soil-dwelling organisms, which in turn support above-ground wildlife. Healthy soils are also more resilient to extreme conditions like drought and waterlogging.
- Integrated farm management, which reduces reliance on pesticides and parasite control chemicals, helps protect non-target species and improves long-term resilience against resistance and regulatory changes.
- Reducing the use of inorganic fertilisers not only lowers input costs but also improves soil and water quality. Similarly, limiting the use of abstracted water benefits both the farm and local wildlife.
- In-field habitat features can further enhance biodiversity. E.g., Beetle banks to support predatory insects that help control crop pests, or skylark plots in winter cereals to improve breeding success,
1. Ben Barron – Leitfie Farm, Alyth, Perthshire
Ben Barron farms over 200 ha of mixed arable and beef land at Leitfie Farm. He’s pioneering regenerative agriculture in Scotland through:
- Direct drilling: Now in its fourth season, improving soil structure and earthworm activity while reducing costs and soil disturbance.
- Crop diversity: A 9-year rotation with 7 crops, including cereals, oilseed rape, beans, and winter peas. He’s trialling companion cropping and cover crops to keep soil covered year-round.
- Livestock integration: Exploring grazing of cover crops and crop residues to boost soil biology and nutrient cycling.
- Innovation: Broadcasting cover crops into standing cereals and experimenting with foliar nutrition to reduce fertiliser and chemical use.
Ben’s goal is to develop a resilient, low-input farming system suited to Scottish conditions, supported by collaboration, research, and government backing.
👉 Read the full case study - Soil Regenerative Agriculture Group Case Study: Ben Barron, Leitfie Farm | Helping farmers in Scotland
2. Rotmell Farm – Dunkeld, Highland Perthshire
Alex Brewster, Soil Farmer of the Year 2020, leads this upland beef and sheep farm:
- Mob grazing with 180 Aberdeen Angus cows and 700 ewes.
- Pasture rest and recovery to build soil health and plant diversity.
- Vertical stacking of enterprises including pigs, hens, bees, and direct sales.
- Bracken control using pigs to promote nutrient cycling and forage growth. Rotmell Farm hosts soil health workshops and is a hub for regenerative farming education.
👉 Read the full case study - Regenerative Farming Business | Rotmell Farming | Ballinluig
3. LENs Leven Catchment Farms – Kinross-shire
A new Landscape Enterprise Network (LENs) initiative supports 10–15 farms in the Leven catchment:
- Regenerative practices: reduced cultivation, nutrient efficiency, hedgerow planting, wildflower margins.
- Goals: improve soil fertility, reduce emissions, enhance habitat connectivity.
- Partners: Forth Rivers Trust, Diageo, SSEN, Perth & Kinross Council. This collaborative model aims to reduce runoff into Loch Leven and build climate resilience.
👉 Read the full case study - https://forthriverstrust.org/n...
4. Stewart Tower Farm – Climate Change Focus Farm
Neil and Linsey Butler run Stewart Tower Farm, a 160 ha mixed dairy and arable farm growing wheat, barley, and grass silage. They also operate a successful ice cream business and farm shop, attracting 30,000–40,000 visitors annually.
As one of Scotland’s first Climate Change Focus Farms, Stewart Tower participated in the programme from 2010 to 2013. Instead of traditional farmer meetings, they hosted on-farm events and used their shop to showcase climate-friendly farming practices to the public.
Key changes and outcomes:
- Improved fertiliser and dung management.
- Enhanced grassland management.
- Tailored fungicide use and selected disease-resistant crop varieties.
- Installed a 100kW wind turbine.
- Saved approximately £10,000 per year through efficiency improvements.
Neil highlighted the value of reducing fertiliser use and increasing clover in grass, noting that small changes can add up to significant climate benefits across the sector.